Pena Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, want to let foreign companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Repsol SA sign production-sharing contracts for oil exploration and output. (The companies would still be prohibited from operating their own fields.) Thus would Mexico return to the situation that prevailed from 1938, when the country expropriated oilfields from U.S.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has presided over an incredible year so far in Mexico, pushing through reforms of the telecom and educational sector. But this week, just days after Pena Nieto’s successful thyroid surgery, the president and his PRI party are set to introduce their biggest proposal yet — proposing sweeping changes to the nation’s oil laws that have for decades protected the bloated state oil monopoly Pemex and prevented foreign investment.

President Enrique Pena Nieto’s PRI and the like-minded PAN have the congressional votes to pass an energy reform. Doing so without preparing Mexicans for the change could be counterproductive. The PRI has also vowed to unveil its own proposal later this year. But pushing a little-known reform on Mexicans at the very last minute may be as troublesome as not having a reform at all. Mexico has a historic opportunity to change its energy future. The country's politicians will make history if they educate their citizens about why their insular oil nationalism is no longer an option.