Page 80 - Impiantistica industriale

NATIONAL OIL COMPANY

such ruling, President Lázaro Cárdenas, finally, in executive regulation of Article 27 of the Mexican
1938, took a final stance against all international oil Constitution gives to Pemex a substantial legal
companies operating in Mexico, thus expropriating monopoly on all phases of oil and gas (upstream,
all their properties and oil fi eld concessions and, in midstream, downstream), as it states in Article 3
this situation, created Pemex to manage all hydro- that “the Nation, through Pemex, shall carry out
carbon assets and activities which had been ex- the activities referred to in Article 3o. of the Law
propriated. consisting of: 1) the exploration, exploitation, refi -
Subsequently, President Cárdenas, in 1940, twenty ning, transport, storage, distribution and fi rsthand
days before handing over the government of Mexi- sales of oil, gas and products obtained from the
co to President Manuel Ávila Camacho, reformed refi ning of these; 2) processing, storage, transport,
Article 27, paragraph 6, of the Mexican Constitu- distribution and fi rsthand sales of petroleum pro-
tion, to prohibit the concessions of oil to private ducts which may be used as basic industrial raw
companies and to establish a legal monopoly of materials)”. Moreover, under this new piece of le-
the Mexican state for the exploration of new fi elds. gislation, the possibility for private companies who
The new version stated that “in the case of oil as executed works on behalf of the state to be paid in
well as of the carbides of hydrogen solid, liquid and cash or in a percentage of the products obtained
gaseous, no concessions will be issued and the was obviously prohibited.

respective regulatory legislation will determine how
the Nation will carry out the exploitation of these The Pena Nieto Liberalization
products”. But the executive regulations establi- After the 1960 reforms, Pemex has continued to
shed that “contracts may be concluded with pri- exercise a legal monopoly over the Mexican oil and
vate companies for the purpose of carrying out, on gas industry, but years of mismanagement and
behalf of the federal government, exploration and corruption, as well as political interference and cro-
exploitation work, either through compensation in nyism has substantially made Pemex (like the enti-
cash or equivalent to a percentage of the products re Mexican oil and gas sector) highly ineffi cient. In
obtained”. In other words, there was a ban on con- fact, the Mexican NOC was debt-laden and in the
cessions but the government could sign contracts midstream and downstream segments there were
with private companies to carry out on its behalf frequent disruptions and thefts of hydrocarbons,
exploration and exploitation and that these private mainly provoked by criminal gangs who punctu-
companies could be paid in cash or in a percenta- red pipelines and then resold the fuels to people
ge with the products obtained. as well as gasoline stations. High levels of corrup-
A 1960 constitutional and legal reform, under the tion among the police as well as in the low to mid
Adolfo López Mateos government, put the fi nal rankings of Pemex also favored this state of affairs.
cap on the activity of private entities in relation to Therefore, President Peña Nieto, from the Partido
exploration and exploitation. In fact, Article 27, pa- Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) which governed
ragraph 6 of the Mexican Constitution was further Mexico without interruption from 1929 to 2000
so amended to read: “neither concessions will be and was politically responsible for the 1940s and
issued nor contracts will be signed and nor will be 1960s reforms, made one of the cornerstones of
kept those contracts which have already been sig- his political agenda the reform of Pemex (a reform
ned and the Nation will carry out the exploitation of highly opposed by most leftist political groups and
those products according to the terms established unions). Paragraph 6 of Article 27 of the Mexican
by the executive legislation”. Moreover, the 1960 Constitution was again reformed in December

78 78 Impiantistica Italiana - Maggio-Giugno 2019