There has been talk of changing that.
Guest Commentary: Mexico’s energy market benefits with foreign investment
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/09/22/guest-commentary-mexicos-energy-market-benefits-with-foreign-investment/
But then it has been talked about for a very long time.
The Cantarell Field has been in production for over 3 decades. While they have some enhanced oil recovery and more will certainly be done, production rates are going to decline. It isn’t a magic fountain, it will not last forever at it’s peak flow rate.
Fairly interesting quote seen recently about the shale plays:
“I am hesitant to predict what can come out of the Bakken and Eagleford shales because in 2009/2010 I didn’t think they would ever produce much at all, nearly nothing.”
The reply was:
“The price of oil in 2009/2010 was about $65. If it still was $65 those shales would produce nothing and you would have been right.”
“We will never run out of oil” is a favorite conservative perspective, and it is correct. You can always drill . . . first for porosity bubbles the size of a warehouse and that will be profitable at $50/barrel. Then as those disappear, you can drill for the bubbles the size of a Section 8 house, provided the price is $100/barrel. Then you drill for fist-sized bubbles, but only if the price is $1000/barrel.
At some point it becomes clear that the price is not measured in dollars. It’s measured in joules of effort. At that point, people start to die.