Energy: Mexico Joins Oil's Big Leagues

A time for creative diplomacy to ease worries about the national patrolium

Like a Scene from Dante, the night sky south of Villahermosa is filled with a fiery glow. It comes from great gouts of flame that flare off natural gas from scores of wells dotting the steamy marshes, scrubs and jungles of the aptly named state of Tabasco in southeast Mexico. Every day, 300 million cu. ft. of gas, enough to supply the energy needs of Vermont for a month, are simply burned off, in part, because the U.S. Government refuses to pay the price that Mexico demands. The huge...

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