Foster says it's helping Pemex with reform agenda at refinery

Oil services company Foster Wheeler said Tuesday it was awarded a contract in Mexico that is part of the country's emerging energy reform.

"We are delighted to be playing a key role in helping Petróleos Mexicanos achieve its vision for a new future, for which the energy reform has been the catalyst," Roberto Penno, the chief engineering officer for Foster Wheeler, said in a statement.

The engineering company said the award is related to a $500 million investment on the part of the Mexican energy company, also known as Pemex, to develop cleaner fuels. Foster Wheeler will help the company reduce the sulfur content from diesel produced at its Salina Cruz refinery in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Mexican lawmakers have embraced plans by President Enrique Peña Nieto to draw international energy companies into the nation's energy sector by privatizing Pemex, which has controlled the Mexican oil sector as a monopoly for the last 70 years.

As part of that reform effort, Pemex last month said it's spending $2.5 billion to upgrade domestic refineries to produce more diesel and gasoline. The effort could cut back on Mexico's imports from the United States and eventually lead to fuel exports.

Foster Wheeler said its work at Salina Cruz should be finished by 2018.