Under date of the 17th of this month I gave to the Secretary of
Industry, Commerce, and Labor the following resolution, which I
repeat to you in answer to your cable of the 14th.
The petroleum companies having manifested in an express
manner that they are disposed to comply with all of the
legal requirements provided they do not imply the violation
of their rights previously acquired;
Having manifested equally that they are disposed to accept
provisional permits for drilling wells valid until the
Congress of the Union issues the organic law of the 27th
Constitutional article, providing that the acceptance or use
of said permits does not attack or prejudice the rights of
the petroleum companies;
Having manifested equally that they will not claim from the
fact of receiving the said permits to acquire any new right,
nor that the Mexican Government by the issuing of said
permits abandons any right or principle that it might wish
to defend;
The President of the Republic has seen fit to decide that
provisional permits shall be conceded to the oil companies
that may petition for the drilling of wells upon the
following bases:
The permits will be valid only until the Congress of the
Union issues the organic law of the Constitutional article
27. The permits that may be granted in the premises may
cover all the wells that have been commenced or drilled
since the 1st of May, 1917; also all the wells that may have
been finished, as well as those that now may be in the
process of drilling.
The respective petitions for permits to drill, which the
petroleum companies may present, must contain the statement
that the permits will not mean the acquisition of any new
right nor the claim that the Mexican Government by the fact
of issuing said permits abandons any right or legal
principle which it may wish to sustain.
The petitions will also contain an agreement that the permits
requested will be valid only until the Congress of the Union
enacts the organic law of the Constitutional article 27
relating to petroleum, when the interested parties must
comply with the provisions of said law or in the contrary
case the provisional permits will lapse. It is understood
not to have prejudiced in any manner or in any sense the
different questions that are now being discussed before the
judicial power of the federation in the amparo suits, or the discussion before the federal
tribunals or the ordinary courts relating to the application
of article 27 and of the different legal decrees on the
subject of petroleum issued by the executive power. Nor will
the discussion of the petroleum law now pending before
Congress be prejudiced in any way.
