MEXICO CITY - Senate-level talks in Mexico are dragging over a politically thorny plan to tweak oil laws, although ruling and opposition party lawmakers said on Thursday a deal could still be reached by October.
Leftists oppose conservative President Felipe Calderon's idea of luring more private firms to the flagging state-run oil sector via incentive contracts, but with centrists broadly on board, a compromise is in sight, lawmakers at the talks said.
"We're running on time ... and expect to have a compromise bill by the end of the month," said Sen. Ruben Camarillo, a member of Calderon's National Action Party and a secretary of the Senate energy committee which is leading oil reform talks.
Locked in debate this week, Senators have so far reached only preliminary deals on minor issues such as how to plan long-term energy policy, Camarillo said.
They have not yet tackled the much trickier core issues of how to get more private companies drilling in Mexico and add new refineries without breaching laws against foreign ownership of operations in either sector.
Yet discussions are on track to have a compromise reform bill ready to be voted on next month, a government source also said. Lawmakers had been eyeing early September as a target for reaching a deal.
"The more complicated issues like refining and contracts ... haven't been touched yet," said Sen. Rogelio Rueda of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
"Our view is that we will be finishing a compromise bill by the end of September or the first week of October," Rueda, who sits on the Senate energy committee, told Reuters.
Calderon lacks a majority in Congress and needs PRI votes to pass a version of the proposal he first submitted in April.
Mexico, the world's No. 6 producer of crude oil, is trying to reverse a worrying decline in output and hold on to its status as a top-three supplier to the United States.
Conservatives have been calling for an oil reform for years, but talks began in earnest after output began to slide at the Cantarell oil field in the last couple of years after three decades of providing the bulk of Mexico's oil.
Calderon's proposal would let foreign companies sign performance-based contracts with state oil monopoly Pemex as a way to ramp up output and get the private sector more involved in project planning and sharing its newest technology.
It is Calderon's most ambitious economic reform attempt yet as many Mexicans are very wary of private involvement in the cherished oil sector, which was nationalized in 1938.
The PRI recently put forward its own proposal calling for a contract scheme similar to Calderon's, leading many in the industry to think the idea will make its way into law.
Any deal reached will likely be a letdown, however, for oil companies that hoped Calderon could convince Congress to remove constitutional barriers to direct private investment.
The PRI has ruled out changes to the constitution.
Leftists oppose conservative President Felipe Calderon's idea of luring more private firms to the flagging state-run oil sector via incentive contracts, but with centrists broadly on board, a compromise is in sight, lawmakers at the talks said.
"We're running on time ... and expect to have a compromise bill by the end of the month," said Sen. Ruben Camarillo, a member of Calderon's National Action Party and a secretary of the Senate energy committee which is leading oil reform talks.
Locked in debate this week, Senators have so far reached only preliminary deals on minor issues such as how to plan long-term energy policy, Camarillo said.
They have not yet tackled the much trickier core issues of how to get more private companies drilling in Mexico and add new refineries without breaching laws against foreign ownership of operations in either sector.
Yet discussions are on track to have a compromise reform bill ready to be voted on next month, a government source also said. Lawmakers had been eyeing early September as a target for reaching a deal.
"The more complicated issues like refining and contracts ... haven't been touched yet," said Sen. Rogelio Rueda of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
"Our view is that we will be finishing a compromise bill by the end of September or the first week of October," Rueda, who sits on the Senate energy committee, told Reuters.
Calderon lacks a majority in Congress and needs PRI votes to pass a version of the proposal he first submitted in April.
Mexico, the world's No. 6 producer of crude oil, is trying to reverse a worrying decline in output and hold on to its status as a top-three supplier to the United States.
Conservatives have been calling for an oil reform for years, but talks began in earnest after output began to slide at the Cantarell oil field in the last couple of years after three decades of providing the bulk of Mexico's oil.
Calderon's proposal would let foreign companies sign performance-based contracts with state oil monopoly Pemex as a way to ramp up output and get the private sector more involved in project planning and sharing its newest technology.
It is Calderon's most ambitious economic reform attempt yet as many Mexicans are very wary of private involvement in the cherished oil sector, which was nationalized in 1938.
The PRI recently put forward its own proposal calling for a contract scheme similar to Calderon's, leading many in the industry to think the idea will make its way into law.
Any deal reached will likely be a letdown, however, for oil companies that hoped Calderon could convince Congress to remove constitutional barriers to direct private investment.
The PRI has ruled out changes to the constitution.
