RARELY has a moment of glory been so cruelly sabotaged. On July 15th Mexico flung open its long-closed energy sector with an auction of oil-exploration rights that ends the 77-year monopoly of Pemex, the state-owned oil company (see article). It is part of a reform package that will add more than two percentage points to economic growth, the government hopes. As the bidding took place, the country’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, was on a state visit to France with much of his government in tow. No doubt, he was hoping to be toasted as the man behind today’s thoroughly modern Mexico.
The toasts must have left a bitter taste. The first round of energy auctions was a flop. Just two of the 14 blocks on offer were sold, to a Mexican-British-American consortium; eight received no bids at all. The government may blame low oil prices for the weak demand. The odds are that badly written rules and the finance ministry’s inflated idea of the revenue it could collect also played their part.
...from The Economist: Leaders http://ift.tt/1I5V03U
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