Mexico open to private investment in energy sector, says key senator

The Mexican government is committed to private investment in the energy sector but with the leadership of the State, the chair of the senate's energy committee said on Monday.

"The country benefits from private participation, as long as it is under clear schemes that benefit it, prioritizing, as always, the poorest," Laura Itzel Castillo Juárez told local outlet Energía a Debate.

Castillo Juárez is a member of the same leftist party, Morena, as President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Sheinbaum has said she will maintain the nationalist energy policies of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, while opening the door to increased private investment in sectors such as renewable energy.

Castillo Juárez, a former board member at national oil company Pemex, said that "a strategic plan for the entire country must guarantee this participation of the private sector, but in an orderly manner, based on a vision of the State."

That position reflects the energy policies of Sheinbaum and Lopez Obrador, who rolled back the liberalizing reforms that former president Enrique Peña Nieto implemented in 2014.

"Unlike the energy reforms of Peña Nieto, now it will be the government who defines the law and not the private sector, like it was before," Castillo Juárez said.

Investors in the Mexican energy industry are awaiting the publication next year of legislation which will determine how they can participate in the sector.

The senator said that recent constitutional reforms in the energy sector will result in at least 24 pieces of secondary legislation.

"We have to make laws that guarantee that these reforms benefit the people of Mexico and the development of this country," she said.