What Thailand can learn from Mexico on energy reform
As has been done for almost 80 years, Mexico last Saturday commemorated the so-called “Oil Expropriation Day”, a national holiday marking the nationalisation of the Mexican oil industry by the government of President Lazaro Cardenas in 1938. But this year’s celebration was particularly at odds with the energy reform that is taking hold in the oil-rich country. Prior to the expropriation, Mexico was the world’s second largest producer of oil. Back then the oil industry in Mexico was dominated by foreign oil companies, which were accused of exploiting the country’s resources and were an object of widespread resentment. Declaring that all mineral and oil reserves found in Mexico belonged to the government, President Lazaro Cardenas signed a decree that expropriated the facilities and assets of all foreign oil companies and later created Petroleos Mexicanos as a state-owned firm that was to have monopoly over the country’s oil industry.
