Mexico Senate names new commissioners to energy regulators

Mexico's Senate on Thursday named new commissioners to the country's two energy regulators and a new independent adviser for national oil company Pemex.

The Senate chose two new commissioners for oil regulator CNH, Héctor Moreira and Gaspar Franco. Moreira replaces former commissioner Edgar Rangel, who died suddenly last month.

For Mexico's energy regulator CRE, the Senate selected Guillermo García Alcocer as president and Luis Guillermo Pineda as a commissioner.

The commissioners were selected from lists of candidates that President Enrique Peña Nieto had sent to the Senate.

The senators also named Felipe Duarte as an independent adviser to Pemex, on the recommendation of Peña Nieto. Duarte replaces Jaime Lomelin Guillen, who resigned from his position in February 2015 because of a conflict of interest.

The appointments come amid implementation of historic reform that has ended Pemex's decades-long monopoly in Mexico.