A complete restructuring of the oil sector in Mexico

• Nationalization in the 1930s

In the 1930s, a major problem occurred in the oil sector in Mexico. People tried to find out: “whose oil is it?”. In other words, there was a competition to become the owner of energies. At this time, oil belonged to American companies. However Roosevelt did not defend them during this competition. In fact his goal was to create friendly relationship with Mexico. Between the two World Wars, the most important was the access and not the control of this oil. Thus oil sector was nationalized in 1938 with the regime of Lazaro Cardenas.

• A strong growth to become a crucial sector

After its nationalization, oil sector has rapidly developed. Thus Mexico was the second strongest producer of oil before the appearance of the “Elephants”, meaning the countries of Middle East. Furthermore the oil crisis of 1973-1974 has encouraged Mexico to look for additional reserves. This process has lead them to substantial discoveries in the 1980s. Thus Mexico, who was importer of oil, managed to transform its economy to be one of the leading exporter in the world. Although Mexico does not belong to the OPEC, it was the fifth-strongest producer in the world in 2005. Consequently oil sector has become crucial within the economy of Mexico; and the government is now relying on Pemex for about one third of its budget. Nowadays Mexico is dependant on oil sector.

• A complete restructuring program
  

The government of Mexico has been trying to transform its oil sector these previous years. In fact Mexico is willing to threat the nationalization of this sector. Vicente Fox is the first president who tried to reach this goal. However he never managed to change the rules. The new president of Mexico, Calderon, and its government are now trying to privatise oil sector in order to improve the declining situation of its flagship Pemex. Nevertheless it will be a very difficult task, as it is even written in the constitution that energy belong to the government and the country. Although it is difficult, most of specialists believe Calderon will manage to privatise and deregulate oil sector and reform the tax system.