MEXICO CITY - A key Mexican opposition party will make substantial changes to the government's oil reform plan, but a compromise bill will be ready for a vote in Congress by September, a senior lawmaker said on Monday.
"We are going to make changes and the changes will be substantial," Sen. Francisco Labastida of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said in a local radio interview.
"But I think we will be ready enough in September to put something together," said Labastida, who heads the Senate energy committee and is the PRI's point man for energy policy.
The PRI has given mixed messages about whether it will support President Felipe Calderon's plan to allow private companies more involvement in the struggling state-run oil sector where production is declining.
On the one hand, The PRI has said it likes the general look of the proposal. But the party's leader recently criticized as "obscure" a key measure of the plan, which would allow state-run oil monopoly Pemex to sign performance-based contracts with private firms.
The PRI has also has said it opposes part of the government proposal that would allow private companies to build and own refineries.
Calderon, a conservative, submitted the proposal in April.
Mexico is the world's No. 6 oil producer and a key U.S. supplier, but Pemex's crude output has fallen short of targets this year due mainly to declining yields at its aging Cantarell offshore field.
Pemex Chief Executive Jesus Reyes Heroles was quoted by Mexican newspapers on Monday as saying he saw the government's proposal overcoming opposition and being approved before September.
Reyes Heroles said in an interview with the daily Excelsior he believed lawmakers could push through an oil law during extraordinary sessions before Congress formally reopens in September.
"I am very confident in the responsibility of Congress to bring the process to a happy end," Reyes Heroles told Excelsior.
LEFTIST OPPOSITION
Leftist opposition parties have rejected the plan and blocked Congress with protests.
Although Congress is closed for the summer, lawmakers and independent experts are debating in televised sessions how to rescue the struggling oil sector. However, the left lacks the seats necessary to block Calderon's plan if the PRI were to team up with Calderon's National Action Party.
The reform is aimed at helping Pemex reach potentially huge oil reserves more than a kilometer deep in the Gulf of Mexico.
"It would be a waste to leave buried the wealth we know the country has," Reyes Heroles said.
In a separate interview with the daily El Economista he said, "It is key that the reform passes ... Pemex will lose the most if it is not approved. We have never been so close to so many regulatory changes."
Calderon is keen to win passage of oil reform before Congress reopens in September and shifts its focus to the 2009 budget.
"We are going to make changes and the changes will be substantial," Sen. Francisco Labastida of the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said in a local radio interview.
"But I think we will be ready enough in September to put something together," said Labastida, who heads the Senate energy committee and is the PRI's point man for energy policy.
The PRI has given mixed messages about whether it will support President Felipe Calderon's plan to allow private companies more involvement in the struggling state-run oil sector where production is declining.
On the one hand, The PRI has said it likes the general look of the proposal. But the party's leader recently criticized as "obscure" a key measure of the plan, which would allow state-run oil monopoly Pemex to sign performance-based contracts with private firms.
The PRI has also has said it opposes part of the government proposal that would allow private companies to build and own refineries.
Calderon, a conservative, submitted the proposal in April.
Mexico is the world's No. 6 oil producer and a key U.S. supplier, but Pemex's crude output has fallen short of targets this year due mainly to declining yields at its aging Cantarell offshore field.
Pemex Chief Executive Jesus Reyes Heroles was quoted by Mexican newspapers on Monday as saying he saw the government's proposal overcoming opposition and being approved before September.
Reyes Heroles said in an interview with the daily Excelsior he believed lawmakers could push through an oil law during extraordinary sessions before Congress formally reopens in September.
"I am very confident in the responsibility of Congress to bring the process to a happy end," Reyes Heroles told Excelsior.
LEFTIST OPPOSITION
Leftist opposition parties have rejected the plan and blocked Congress with protests.
Although Congress is closed for the summer, lawmakers and independent experts are debating in televised sessions how to rescue the struggling oil sector. However, the left lacks the seats necessary to block Calderon's plan if the PRI were to team up with Calderon's National Action Party.
The reform is aimed at helping Pemex reach potentially huge oil reserves more than a kilometer deep in the Gulf of Mexico.
"It would be a waste to leave buried the wealth we know the country has," Reyes Heroles said.
In a separate interview with the daily El Economista he said, "It is key that the reform passes ... Pemex will lose the most if it is not approved. We have never been so close to so many regulatory changes."
Calderon is keen to win passage of oil reform before Congress reopens in September and shifts its focus to the 2009 budget.
