Mexico leftist says he would try to halt energy auctions if president-elect

NOTICIAS DE MERCADOS18 DE MARZO DE 2018 / 13:38 / HACE 3 HORAS

Redacción de Reuters

MEXICO CITY, March 18 (Reuters) - Mexico’s leftist presidential front-runner said on Sunday that if he wins the July election, he will ask President Enrique Pena Nieto to stop at least two energy auctions scheduled to take place before the new president takes office.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a long-time skeptic of Pena Nieto’s energy reform, enshrined in 2014, and he and his team have delivered fluctuating messages on what they would do if they win. Foreign investors and energy companies are paying close attention to what might happen in one of the most important, and recently opened, energy markets in the Americas.

There are two official authorized oil auctions - in July and September - that could be threatened by Lopez Obrador’s comments, and the energy ministry wants to squeeze in another before Pena Nieto leaves office, although it has yet to be given the green light.

Speaking in Mexico City on the 80th anniversary of the nationalization of the country’s oil industry, Lopez Obrador also said that within three years of his possible six-year term, Mexico would stop buying foreign fuel, following extensive upgrades of the country’s refining sector.

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