Mexico’s senate has given the final congressional approval to the country’s watershed energy reform that will open up the oil industry to private investment in a 78-26 vote late Wednesday night. The reform, which initially became law 21 December 2013, will now head to the desk of its main and most visible proponent, Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto (pictured).
Originally sent to the senate on 30 April, the first in a packet of four "secondary" bills was passed 15 July 2014, with the others passing in the following week. They then passed to the lower house for legislative review.
The senate said it rejected proposed amendments from opposition parties PRD and PT (Labor Party) relating to worker and union rights, which have been contentious issues throughout the passage of the reform.
Peña Nieto introduced the reforms to revive Mexico’s fading oil, gas and power industries. Among his main directives were to end the country’s decades-old state monopoly; to open state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) up to partnerships with the private sector, and to reverse the country's declining oil production and profit margins.
As a result of the reform and its secondary legislation, Pemex will now have more fiscal autonomy, while at the same time accruing more rascal responsibility: Transparency was another key issue of the reform.
Read more on Mexico and the historic energy reform:
Sinopacific enters Mexican market
Mexico's energy reform marches on
PEMEX to invest billions in Cantarell
Mexico's energy reform: challenges and opportunities
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