La reforma petrolera de México

¿dos sexenios sin política energética?

Abstract

The essay presents evidences regarding the limitations of energy planning during the last two administrations and puts in perspective the danger the oil industry faces in case the Executive chooses to put in place only partially the energy reform that the Congress discussed, partially modified from its original presidential proposal, and finally approved. With such a reform the Executive perfectly can send to the world the signal that the political parties and the central government have reached a consensus and that with it Mexico advances in the list of reforms of first and second generation on which the international financial organisms have insisted. Although it may be a goal for the president –such as he “fiscal reform” was at its moment–, it should prove insufficient for the requirements of financing public expenditure and mostly for the country´s complex objectives. Due to this fact, the authorities are urged not only to carry out the reform in the terms the Congress put it, but also to rewrite the diagnosis of the Energy Ministry and to fit the national planning system so as to modify the National Development Plan 2007-2012 and the Sector Energy Program 2007-2012. Key words: reform, energy, petroleum, planning, finances, debt.