Pemex brings Exxon into 'new Mexican oil market'

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 3 (UPI) —

The Mexican energy company known as Pemex said its agreement with Exxon Mobil is part of an effort to attract private capital to the national landscape.

Emilio Lozoya Austion, director general of Petrà ³leos Mexicanos, hosted Exxon Mobil President Rex Tillerson for the signing of a memorandum of understanding in upstream and downstream sectors of the Mexican energy sector.

"The signing of the memorandum adds to the efforts Pemex has done to attract new technologies, capital and partners to allow them to compete effectively in the new Mexican oil market, ensure production and create jobs in the domestic energy sector," the Mexican company said in a Thursday statement.

Mexican lawmakers embraced plans by President Enrique Peà ±a Nieto to draw international energy companies into the nation’s energy sector by privatizing Pemex, which has controlled the Mexican oil sector as a monopoly for the last 70 years.

Peà ±a Nieto set a goal of producing 3.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2025, which would be a 40 percent increase from 2013 levels.

The oil sector accounted for 13 percent of the country’s export earnings last year.