International oil companies are overjoyed with the Zedillo regime in Mexico, which recently decided to open transport, distribution and storAge of natural gas to the private sector. The oil giants are convinced that the move will speed up development plans. They believe that many gasfired power stations were inexcusably delayed because the state monopoly, Petreleos Mexicanos . (Pemex), lacked the resources to put supply pipelines in place.

"We are very interested," said David Annesley of Trans-Canada Pipelines of Calgary. The company plans to bid for a power generation project along with a Mexican construction company. For Mexico, still struggling to recover from early 1995's financial collapse, this could spell recovery.