The energy Mexico needs

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It's been 80 years since the nationalization of the oil industry, a sector that has decayed in the last decade. In 2017, the Mexican production decreased to less than 2 million barrels per day, a level that hadn't been registered since 1980, and the fall won't stop. Currently, the country produced 1.8 million barrels per day.

There are many reasons for the decline in the sector including the downfall of oil prices and the depletion of oil fields, the lack of investment in PEMEX, and PEMEX's tax obligations towards public finances.

The energy reform approved three years ago, had the purpose to open the fossil fuels production to the private sector, national and foreign, as well as free PEMEX from burdens that limited its development.

During this time, very little has changed. Regions that used to be producers and had an economic boom located in Veracruz, Tabasco, and Campeche are still sunk in a virtual paralysis in the face of a nonexistent productive activity.

In the midst of this scenario, yesterday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that in 2019, PEMEX will have MXN $75,000 million more than in 2018, with the aim of investing in the exploitation and drilling of oil wells.

Investing money in a sector that was key for the national development for years is a measure that will be beneficial for those oil areas that now look like ghost towns and they will also help rekindle an unwieldy industry; although it would also mean allocating resources to an industry that might be surpassed in the future.

For a couple of years, in the world, many vehicles are made don't require gas to run, but electricity. The most developed countries are relying on this technology, which is also more friendly with the environment as it doesn't produce polluting emissions.

Opting for refineries and oil will have an economic impact on millions of people because, it's true, the energy produced by fossil remains is still the most used one in the world, nevertheless, the investment on clean processes to create renewable energy shouldn't be left behind. Almost a century ago Mexico decided to link its development to oil, the country has to get ready for the future.

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