Mexico key opposition party criticizes oil plan

By Jason Lange

MEXICO CITY, May 5 (Reuters) - A key Mexican opposition party lawmaker has recommended rejecting part of President Felipe Calderon's energy reform proposal that would allow private companies to own refineries and pipelines.

The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has said it likes the general look of Calderon's plan to boost the sagging energy sector and state oil monopoly Pemex.

But in comments published on Monday, Sen. Francisco Labastida, the PRI's point man for energy policy, said part of Calderon's plan that would allow private companies to own refineries would take jobs from the national oil workers union. The powerful Pemex union is an ally of the PRI.

"It is the factor that most polarizes society and moreover would take a source of work away from (the union)," Labastida, who heads the Senate energy committee, said in a report analyzing Calderon's bill, Reforma newspaper reported.

When Labastida was the PRI's presidential candidate in the 2000 election, the oil workers union gave his campaign tens of millions of dollars in donations that electoral referees later ruled illegal. He lost the election.

Calderon, who was elected in 2006, needs the PRI's support to get his bill through Congress, where his own conservative party lacks a majority.

He also faces opposition from leftists who have promised to stop the reform with street protests and recently staged a two week congressional sit-in. The leftists, however, lack the votes needed to block it in Congress.

FALLING PRODUCTION

Mexico is the world's No. 6 producer of oil and a top U.S. supplier, but production is falling at a major oil field and state oil monopoly Pemex has been unable to find new reserves fast enough to stave off the decline. A lack of refining capacity means Mexico has to import about 40 percent of its gasoline.

Calderon wants to attract foreign oil companies to help it develop potentially massive crude and gas deposits in the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico. His proposal would allow Pemex to pay the companies performance-based bonuses for service contracts across the energy industry.

Several senior PRI lawmakers have said they were glad Calderon proposed a measure to boost private investment without allowing companies to share profits from production, which is banned by Mexico's Constitution. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by John Picinich)