Mexico’s New Oil Era Is Here and Economic Legacy Is at Stake
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Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto’s credibility on law and order was damaged this weekend by the prison escape of the nation’s most famous drug trafficker. Now he’s about to be tested on his pledge to attract private investment to the flagging oil business and help revive the economy.
On Wednesday, the government will hold the first in a series of petroleum auctions that will help open the energy industry, bringing in an estimated $62.5 billion by 2018 and increasing annual output by 500,000 barrels a day. The exploration and production contracts, the first since then-President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized the fields in 1938, will end the monopoly of state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.