Mexico's PRI wary of private companies refining oil

MEXICO CITY, April 10 (Reuters) - A key Mexican opposition party said on Thursday it was wary of parts of a government energy reform proposal that would allow private companies to invest in refining.

The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has said it likes the general look of the proposal, which looks to attract foreign companies to hunt for new oil reserves to rescue falling output in state-run oil industry.

President Felipe Calderon, a conservative, presented the proposal to Congress on Tuesday, though he lacks a majority and needs help from the opposition to pass legislation.

But the PRI is suspicious of allowing private investors into refining, which is another key part of the reform plan because Mexico, the world's No. 5 crude producer, imports about 40 percent of its gasoline.

Lawmaker Manlio Beltrones, who heads the PRI in the Senate, said other parts of the proposal could help drum up the capital needed to build new refineries, eliminating the need to call in private companies.

"We have to debate this within the party," Beltrones told Mexican radio. "The best thing might be to substitute the private capital with the other money we will have."

Calderon's proposal would allow incentive-based service contracts across the state-run oil sector from oil drilling and refining to pipelines and storage.

It would also allow state oil monopoly Pemex to issue "citizens' bonds," which would pay a yield based on company profits. Beltrones was referring to these bonds when he spoke of alternatives to getting private companies involved.

Pemex currently has just six refineries which it has spent the past 10 years upgrading. Pemex chief Jesus Reyes Heroles said on Wednesday the reform could help Mexico have a few more refineries by 2015. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Marguerita Choy)