Landmark reforms that could lead to a deregulation of the Mexico oil industry has a Texas state lawmaker wanting to explore how the state could benefit.
Early this year Mexico passed one set of reforms in regard to the country’s oil exploration and now the state-run oil company PEMEX is seeking investors and private companies with the skill to help extract one of the biggest oil reserves in the world.
State Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, wants to know how the state of Texas can get in the game. Canales has requested Speaker of the House Joe Strauss, R-San Antonio, authorize joint public hearings between the House Energy Resources Committee and the House International Trade and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee to review the issue and possibilities for economic growth for Texas.
“And so allowing everyone to open the discussion with respect to the market in Mexico allows the state of Texas to open the dialogue to say: What can we do to maximize the capitalization of this issue?" Canales said. "And when it happens Texas is prepared, we do not want to be behind the curve on a $1.3-trillion boom.”
Many experts believe PEMEX doesn't have the money nor the resources and skills to extract one of the biggest deposits of oil and gas embedded in the shale rock of Northern Mexico. Canales said natural gas companies already operating in Texas would be perfectly poised to help extract those resources.
"Because they are going to need our professional services, they going to need the fact that we are the industry leaders," Canales said. "And so if we’re as a state and as an industry, and we’ve got our policies in place, Texas would stand to maximize the benefits.”
Canales said being allowed into Northern Mexico to extract oil and gas could potentially be the biggest economic boom the state has ever seen.
