Mexico's president proposes three names for Pemex board

MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that he will send to the Senate his proposal for three people to fill seats on the board of state-run oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Lopez Obrador said he will propose as independent board members Edmundo Sanchez Aguilar, Juan Jose Paullada and Jose Eduardo Beltran Hernandez.

According to the Pemex website, there are three vacancies on the five-member independent board.

The Wall Street Journal reported on March 29 that three independent board members of Pemex were set to resign over conflicts with Lopez Obrador's strategy for managing the troubled oil company.

Lopez Obrador, who won a landslide election last year on promises that included strengthening Pemex, has favored public spending for the highly indebted company such as the recent authorization for a $3.9 billion capital injection from the government that included new tax relief.

But ratings agencies say that is not enough to stabilize Pemex and have put its credit rating at one notch above junk, increasing fears of a downgrade that could raise Mexico's sovereign borrowing costs.

Holding more than $106 billion in financial debt, Pemex owes more than any other oil company in the world, both private and state-owned, that file reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.