Despite the attempts towards sustainable development policies concerning finite resources and the so called “green economy” in the last two decades, the increasing demand for exploitation and export of natural assets by industrialized and emerging countries remains unrestrained. While the influence of multinational extraction companies increases with the advancing globalization, the intensified extraction and new actors within the local arena cause tensions on the local level. Especially the continuous dependency of the world economy on oil is known to be a source for conflicts between local population, oil firms and state actors worldwide as also in Latin America.
In Mexico, hydrocarbon holds an outstanding position among the national energy sector. The exportation of fossil fuels has been one of the most important factors for the national economy and since the nationalization of the hydrocarbon sector 1938 the state firm PEMEX became symbol for national pride and unity. During the more than seven decades the company established relationships with the local communities affected by its operations, like in the Ejido Emiliano Zapata located in the North of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. This area is marked by intensive fossil fuels extractions since the 1950s and so for more than 50 years, hydrocarbon extraction has been an important part of everyday life in the community. Since the oil firm started working on Ejido territory, the presence and activities of PEMEX shaped the living conditions of the community and have been profoundly inscribed in the political and socio-economic landscape. Conflicts, benefit agreements, contestation and cooperation with the company have their place in the everyday life of the community and created interwoven relationships between the community members and the extracting firm.
But in the last decade the national oil bonanza provided by PEMEX decreased significantly. The benefits from the oil industry have been rather low since 2004 and PEMEX was accused of being unproductive and subverted by internal corruption. When the numbers increased again Mexico’s hydrocarbon industry had finally proven to not be able to compete on an international level. In 2013 the Mexican government introduced a comprehensive Energy reform to recover the productivity of the hydrocarbon sector, among other goals. The reform consists mainly in the amendment of three articles of the constitution, opening the hydrocarbon sector for private investment and thus ends the 76-year monopoly of PEMEX. In therefore changes situation for many communities which have had long established contacts with PEMEX and converts them into an international playing fields with foreign companies as global players. This paper analyses the complex relations between the community and oil firm and provides a first insight on the recently initiated structural modifications within Mexico’s energy sector and its implications on the local level. It therefore contributes to the discussion on local effects of a globalized resource extraction industry. The presented material stems from an ethnographic fieldwork which was conducted within the scope of a dissertation project.
