Mexico's Pemex chief sees oil reform by Sept-media

MEXICO CITY, June 2 (Reuters) - The head of Mexican state oil monopoly Pemex sees a proposed energy reform overcoming opposition and being approved before September, Mexican media reported on Monday.

Pemex Chief Executive Jesus Reyes Heroles said in an interview with the daily Excelsior he believed lawmakers could push through an oil law during extraordinary sessions before Congress formally reopens in September.

"I am very confident in the responsibility of Congress to bring the process to a happy end," Reyes Heroles told Excelsior.

President Felipe Calderon submitted an energy reform proposal in April aimed at lowering barriers to private investment in the oil sector and helping state-run Pemex uncover new reserves that could bolster waning production.

Opposition parties rejected the plan, however, and leftists blocked Congress with protests. Although Congress is closed for the summer, lawmakers and independent experts are debating in televised sessions how to rescue the struggling oil sector.

Mexico is the world's No. 6 oil producer and a key U.S. supplier, but Pemex's crude output has fallen short of targets this year due mainly to declining yields at its aging Cantarell offshore field.

The reform is aimed at helping Pemex reach potentially huge oil reserves more than a kilometer deep in the Gulf of Mexico.

"It would be a waste to leave buried the wealth we know the country has," Reyes Heroles said.

In a separate interview with the daily El Economista he said, "It is key that the reform passes ... Pemex will lose the most if it is not approved. We have never been so close to so many regulatory changes."

Calderon is keen to win passage of oil reform before Congress reopens in September and shifts its focus to the 2009 budget. (Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz, editing by Matthew Lewis)