Mexico’s antitrust watchdog Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica (Cofece) has sent a letter to Mexico’s Congress decrying proposed changes to the nation’s Ley de Hidrocarburos, or Hydrocarbons Law.

US pipeline exports to Mexico

“We recommend the reform to the Hydrocarbons Law isn’t approved,” President Jana Palacios said on Twitter. She suggested the proposed changes would be damaging to competition in the nation’s energy sector. “Without competition, the risk is that prices will rise.”

In late March, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent a bill to Congress to amend the Hydrocarbons Law. The amended law would give the state greater control over granting and revoking permits in the oil, gas and petrochemicals business.

“If approved, the initiative would generate...