Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her government will send Congress on Wednesday a bill intended to reform the country’s energy sectors and establish mechanisms for public-private partnerships across the power and oil and gas industries.
“This is a very deep reform,” Sheinbaum said in a morning conference, saying it aimed to simplify the structures of state power firm CFE and oil producer Pemex and shore up Mexico’s energy reserves while keeping prices accessible to residents.
Sheinbaum has pledged continuity with the policy preferences of her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, including his call for state control over energy.
The reform would give preference to state operators while allowing for public-private partnerships.
According to a draft of the bill seen by Reuters on Tuesday, the reform would require that CFE supply at least 54% of electricity dispatched to the national grid, and the state would hold a minimum 54% stake in public-private projects.
The plan includes the creation of a new energy regulator that would be responsible for issuing permits for oil and petrochemical projects, Sheinbaum said in the presentation, adding that her government would present an investment plan for CFE next week.
Sheinbaum said the reform supports her administration’s industrial plan, which she presented earlier this month after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of imposing sanctions against its top trade partners.
Separately, she said she did not believe the U.S. would impose the 25% tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump by the Feb. 1 deadline.
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Cassandra Garrison and Franklin Paul)