Bloomberg.com: Exclusive: “Pemex May Drill Outside Mexico for First Time If Reforms Fail”

Pemex needs foreign help because it doesn’t have the technology to drill in water deeper than 500 meters (1,640 feet), he said.

Pemex may need foreign help, but it does not need a partner.

It can buy that expertise without a foreign partner. Oil field services companies like Slumberger (disclosure) can do this on a fee for service basis.

And it turns out that their “threat” is to do a partnership with Petroleo Brasileiro, which has more deep water experience.

They are trying to get through with a bill that will allow “partnerships” that are ownership in everything but name, because someone gets the fat “commissions” for brokering the deals.