INTERVIEW-Mexico ruling party sees oil reform draft next week

MEXICO CITY, April 3 (Reuters) - A key senator from Mexico's ruling party said his energy team will have an oil reform proposal ready next week with clauses to encourage drilling in deepwater oil fields on the U.S. maritime border.

Sen. Ruben Camarillo, the National Action Party's point man for writing the proposal, told Reuters the PAN was also "very seriously" considering measures to allow state oil monopoly Pemex to partner with other state firms in deep-sea oil.

"It's almost ready. We should have the final document within a week," Camarillo said in an interview.

"It would be a financial and technological disaster to allow Pemex to go it alone in deep waters," he added.

Camarillo said the party was studying ways to lure foreign oil majors into working with Pemex in deep waters that did not include concessions or risk contracts, which leftists oppose, as well as measures to boost investment in pipelines.

Pemex, a top supplier of crude to the United States, wants to develop potentially huge deepwater fields in its half of the Gulf of Mexico to stave off declining reserves and production.

However, it says it could get at the crude in half the time if legislation was passed to allow it to form joint ventures with foreign companies, be they private oil companies or state-owned like Brazil's Petrobras.

As lawmakers discuss the issue, many in the PAN have picked out deepwater oil fields on the border with the U.S. Gulf of Mexico as being a priority, as U.S. drilling could suck oil over to the other side.

The reform attempt will the be most ambitious yet for conservative President Felipe Calderon since he took office in December 2006 and shook up pension, fiscal and judicial laws.

He said the proposal by PAN legislators in the Senate energy committee would need to be approved by the party leadership before being unveiled. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Christian Wiessner)