In January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto stood before heads of state and business leaders from around the globe and declared 2014 as the year private companies would start investing in his country’s energy sector. Peña Nieto’s statement, made in such a global setting, represented a historic shift in Mexico’s energy policy.
Since 1938, the Latin American country’s oil wealth has been controlled by Petroleos Mexicanos, more widely known as Pemex. The state-run petroleum company was created by then-president Lazaro Cardenas, who kicked out foreign enterprise to ensure his country’s energy wealth remained in the hands of the people.
More than 70 years later, Mexico’s energy infrastructure is crumbling and in need of repair. Pemex