Mexico should sell stakes in Pemex, billionaire says
Mexico, which nationalized its oil industry in 1938, should sell stakes in the petrochemicals and refinery units of state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos to private investors to help free up funds and increase output, billionaire Carlos Slim said.
Pemex, Mexico’s only oil company, will need to remain in government hands because of its importance to the economy, Slim said in an interview in New York. The Mexican government should insulate Pemex from politics by appointing professional managers and independent board members, Slim said.
“Pemex is the main tool of fiscal and monetary policy and a leverage for development, so it should be state-owned,” said Slim, 65, whose telecommunications, banking and industrial companies account for almost half of Mexico’s benchmark stock index. But some parts, like petrochemicals and refineries, could be open to private investment, he said.
Since President Vicente Fox took office in 2000, Mexico’s Congress has rejected plans to add outside directors to Pemex’s board and refused to discuss ways to open the energy industry. Pemex Chief Executive Luis Ramirez, in radio interviews and congressional testimony throughout the year, has appealed to Mexican lawmakers to ease restrictions that have limited foreign investment in the sector and are making the company’s finances “unsustainable.”
More: chron.com
Mexico Should Sell Pemex's Refinery, Chemical Units, Slim Says
Mexico, the world's No. 6 oil producer, should sell stakes in the petrochemicals and refinery units of state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos to private investors to help free up funds and increase output, billionaire Carlos Slim said.
Pemex, Mexico's only oil company, will need to remain in government hands because of its importance to the economy, Slim, the country's richest man and the world's fourth wealthiest, said in an interview in New York. The Mexican government should insulate Pemex from politics by appointing professional managers and independent board members, Slim said.
``Pemex is the
Mexico states want Fox to veto Pemex tax reform
Mexican President Vicente Fox is under pressure to veto a much-vaunted law to ease taxes on state oil monopoly Pemex, as state governors complain their fiscal revenues will plummet as a result.
State governors want to meet Fox before he approves the law, passed by Congress in June and set to save Pemex billions of dollars in future taxes. A top government official said Tuesday it was possible Fox could block the measure.
"The executive branch has until Sept. 1 to decide whether this law could be vetoed or remain the way it
Three dead in acid vapor leak at Mexico Pemex plant
Three workers died on Sunday when condensed sulphydric vapor escaped at a natural gas processing plant in northern Mexico owned by state energy monopoly Pemex, the civil protection agency said.
Two others were hospitalized after the accident at the plant in Ciudad Madero in Tamaulipas state, across the border from Texas, said Salvador Trevino, director of the state civil protection arm.
"A leak of sulphydric acid began in the battery area. There were three Pemex maintenance workers in the area who lost their lives," he said.
Pemex said in a statement that a hose
UPDATE 2-Mexico's Pemex resumes full production after Emily
Mexico resumed its full production of crude oil on Friday by bringing its wells in the Gulf of Mexico back on tap after they were closed by a powerful hurricane, state oil monopoly Pemex said.
Pemex slashed output and halted exports as Hurricane Emily pounded the Yucatan Peninsula and then moved into the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week.
The storm shut down 2.95 million barrels of day of crude oil as well as 1.87 million bpd of exports, the bulk of them to the United States.
Pemex typically produces about 3.4 million bpd of crude,
Mexico proven oil reserves dip to 16.470 bln bce
State oil monopoly Pemex said Thursday that Mexico's proven oil and gas reserves dipped to 16.470 billion barrels of crude oil equivalent (bce) at the end of 2005, down from 17.6 billion bce a year earlier.
Earlier this week Pemex, one of the main suppliers of oil to the United States, reported a slip in total oil and gas reserves to 46.418 billion bce at the end of 2005, down from 46.914 at the end of 2004.
Within that figure, probable reserves stood at 15.784 billion bce versus 15.8 billion a year earlier and
Mexico halts all oil exports,most output, till Wed
Mexico's closure of most offshore oil production and ports mean the suspension of 2.95 million barrels per day (bpd) in output until midweek and the grounding of all exports, state oil monopoly Pemex said on Monday.
Pemex -- which normally produces 3.4 million bpd of crude -- said it would start restoring production on Wednesday and should be fully operational again on Friday, after shutting down most oil wells in the Campeche Sound, in the southern Gulf of Mexico, due to Hurricane Emily.
Pemex said port closures in the Gulf of Mexico meant it was
Reuters Summit-Mexico's Pemex sees output flat to 2007
Mexican state oil monopoly Pemex sees crude oil production staying roughly flat this year and next, Chief Financial Officer Juan Jose Suarez said Friday.
Suarez said he saw Pemex's 2007 crude oil output averaging 3.45 million barrels per day, up only a whisker from estimated average production of 3.42 million bpd this year.
"It should be around 3.45 million," he told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Mexico City.
Pemex, one of the top three suppliers of crude oil to the United States, saw its oil production dip to 3.33 million bpd in 2005, partly
Mexico Oil Bill May Be Revised
Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent a tax-reform proposal for state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, back to Congress for revisions.
Fox shares the objectives of the reform, which was designed to help Pemex direct more funds to invest in exploration, production and other operational activities, a news release from the Interior Department said.
Source: news.moneycentral.msn.com
Telmex to Cut Rates to Boost Mexico Sales, Chico Says
Telefonos de Mexico SA, the nation's biggest fixed-line carrier, plans to keep cutting rates to bolster telephone use in a bid to halt a three-year decline in local revenue, Chief Executive Jaime Chico Pardo said.
``Raising rates no longer crosses my mind,'' Chico Pardo said in an interview yesterday in Mexico City. ``We've been reducing rates and integrating services in packages to make them more attractive for our clients to encourage more consumption, and we'll stay on this path for a while.''
Telmex, controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, has refrained
UPDATE 1-Houston Exploration to sell Gulf of Mexico assets
Houston Exploration Co. (THX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Tuesday said it plans to sell its entire asset base in the Gulf of Mexico, which has historically accounted for about 40 percent of its total production.
The company said it would open a data room for the offshore assets in January and expects to complete a sale in the first quarter. Wachovia Securities is acting as financial adviser on the sale.
The company said it would use the proceeds to potentially acquire new onshore assets, reduce debt or buy back stock. Its year-end 2004 offshore
