Mexico Stands at a Crossroads on Energy

MEXICO CITY — In the midst of Mexico’s biggest oil boom since the 1970s, the nation’s top two presidential candidates are debating whether to turn outward and open oil to private investors – or inward by exporting less crude and giving Mexicans subsidized gasoline.

The question revolves around nationalist pride as well as pump prices, but the real challenge lies elsewhere: finding new deposits to replace Mexico’s rapidly declining Cantarell field off the Gulf Coast. If Mexico doesn’t act quickly, the question of what to do with the oil wealth may be moot – in a decade, there may not be enough oil left to supply the economy.

SeattlePI.com