FACTBOX-Mexico energy reform debate [View All]

[AlphaCentauri]

March 31 (Reuters) - Following are the latest developments as Mexico's ruling conservatives court PRI and PRD opposition lawmakers to agree on an energy reform proposal aimed at revitalizing the country's flagging oil industry.

Snippets compiled from Reuters stories, Mexican newspaper reports, television and radio.

** Mexico will start afresh this week with multi-party talks on the oil sector, reducing the chances of passing a law before Congress winds up on April 30. After opposition to its idea of allowing private oil partnerships in a reform, the ruling National Action Party, or PAN, will present a new study on the industry's problems to opposition lawmakers, hoping to agree on a comprehensive reform proposal.

For full story click on

** A left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, coordinator says the party is seeking talks with the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to form an agreement to block an energy reform in Congress if it is presented.

** PRI Sen. Rogelio Rueda, a member of the Senate energy committee, says the party could submit its own proposal if the government doesn't, given the urgent need for a reform.

** State energy monopoly Pemex is lagging in deepwater oil, having drilled just six exploration wells over the past five years, Exploration and Production Director Carlos Morales says. Each well cost between $70 million and $150 million.

** PAN Sen Juan Bueno says his party will suggest allowing deepwater joint ventures that would offer incentive fees of up to 20 percent rather than a share in oil drilled and penalizing the partners if a well does not strike oil.

** A survey in the daily El Universal shows 73 percent of respondents don't know what to expect in an oil reform but 51 percent think it should include changes to Pemex and 53 percent back using private investment to explore for new oil deposits.

** Firebrand leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sets up committees around Mexico to mobilize supporters to join blockades of highways, Pemex installations and Toluca airport near Mexico City as early as this week to protest proposals to lower barriers to private investment in oil.

** The PRD could be looking at another two weeks for the result of its contested March 16 leadership election between a moderate open to debating an oil bill in Congress and a more radical candidate seen backing Lopez Obrador's protests.

** PRD lawmakers and Lopez Obrador rejected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's recent comments backing the idea of Pemex linking up with Brazil's state-run Petrobras in deepwater projects. PRI Sen. Manlio Beltrones welcomed the comments, however, calling the plan "imaginative."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2837693220080331?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0