MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Felipe Calderon said state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos must be freed from political and ideological “prejudice” and from interests that have prevented it from remaining in the vanguard in terms of technology and investment.

During the inauguration of the 2009 Mexican Petroleum Congress in the eastern state of Veracruz, Calderon said he will try to make sure Mexico once again becomes a world “oil power” because of that industry’s importance in spurring the country’s “growth and development.”

Speaking to representatives of more than 100 oil companies from 17 countries, he said the recent decline in the Mexican state oil company’s output and the strides made by its counterparts in other parts of the world have left Pemex in a position of relative backwardness.

Compared with other state-run firms, Pemex is the third-largest crude oil producer, the 11th biggest integrated oil and gas company and in 12th place in terms of proven reserves.

“Today, thanks to the reform of Pemex (approved in October 2008), we have the chance to improve the company’s exploration and production capacity,” the president said.

Calderon last year sought to push a controversial plan through Congress to overhaul Pemex, including allowing the cash-strapped company to take on private oil firms as full partners in the exploration and drilling of new deepwater deposits in the Gulf of Mexico.

But leftist lawmakers fiercely opposed the initial bill, claiming that the aim of the government was to privatize Pemex, created after President Lazaro Cardenas’ nationalization of the oil industry in 1938.

After months of debate, a revised bill was passed that gives Pemex more freedom to undertake projects with private firms, but excludes the provisions of Calderon’s original initiative that would have allowed them a stake in the oil or any eventual profits.

The president also said Thursday that in the coming days he will announce a 5 billion peso ($376 million) plan to bolster Mexican companies that provide services to the country’s oil industry.

“That amount will seek to support the development of suppliers and contractors (that are) established in Mexico (and) create employment in Mexico, in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises,” he added.

Calderon said “the oil industry has been and must continue to be the key piece in the (country’s) development.”

Among the nation’s future challenges, he stressed the need for greater oil exploration and production, especially in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

In the first quarter of 2009, Pemex produced 2.66 million barrels per day, down 7.78 percent from the 2.89 million bpd extracted during the same period of last year.

The country’s main offshore fields in the Gulf of Mexico – Cantarell, once Mexico’s crown jewel but now in steep decline, and Ku-Maloob-Zaap, which has already reached its peak level of output – account for 59.4 percent of the nation’s total daily crude production.

Pemex earned $98.4 billion in total revenue last year, yet it still posted an $8.3 billion net loss after paying $57.2 billion in taxes and royalties into government coffers. EFE