Wednesday, March 19th, 2008...8:32 am
March 18 In Mexico
I went to the bank on Monday to find it closed. Yesterday I encountered a long time gringo resident on his way to pay his water bill. He explained that the water utility office was closed on Monday in observation of anniversary of the 1938 nationalization of Mexico’s oil resources. I assume the bank was closed for the same reason.
These days President Felipe Calderon is advocating partnering PEMEX, the national petroleum enterprise which provides 40% of the national budget, with foreign companies to provide technology necessary to explore for and exploit oil resources believed to exist under the deeper areas of the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico was the world’s sixth largest oil producer in 2006, but its oil reserves have been declining for a number of years.
Calderon maintains that PEMEX lacks the technical ability to exploit the deeper Gulf oil fields and without new reserves and production Mexico will no longer be an exporter of oil within about nine years. Mexico currently supplies about 1.4 million barrels of oil per day to the USA.
There is resistance to Calderon’s plan, including by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who narrowly lost to Calderon in the 2006 presidential election. There have been a number of recent demonstrations and marches here in Xalapa protesting the “privatization” of PEMEX.
Kicking Calvin in Playa Baracoa.
Leave a Reply