Mexican Congresswoman Rocio Nahle, top energy advisor to presidential frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, talks to Reuters in Mexico City, Mexico February 21, 2018. Picture taken February 21, 2018. REUTERS/David Alire Garcia
February 22, 2018
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s presidential frontrunner is not opposed to foreign investment in the country’s oil, a top adviser said, but his government would make dramatic changes to energy strategy, including a new focus on refining rather than crude exports.
In perhaps the most significant change envisioned by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the favorite to win the July 1 election, Mexico would seek to end decades of exporting crude in three years, a lawmaker who Lopez Obrador has tapped to be his future energy minister said in an interview.
Instead, Mexico should turn its focus to producing value-added fuels, processing crude domestically to produce more gasoline and diesel at refineries owned by state oil company Pemex, Rocio Nahle told Reuters late on Wednesday.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
