Mexico's Pemex will seek flat 2013 capex budget -adviser

MEXICO CITY, July 16 (Reuters) - State oil monopoly Pemex will ask Mexico's new Congress to approve a 340 billion peso, or $25.6 billion, capital expenditure budget for 2013 when the body begins budget deliberations in September, a Pemex adviser said on Monday.

The annual budget for Pemex, the world's No. 7 oil producer, is set by the Mexican Congress each year as part of the finance ministry's budget.

Fluvio Ruiz, one of four professional advisers to the oil giant, told Reuters the 2013 request was similar to this year's allocation, including a similar level of requested funding for maintenance at Pemex's key Chicontepec oilfields project, seen as crucial to boosting output in coming years.

"The investment trend is being maintained. There isn't a substantial change," said Ruiz.

On July 1 Mexican voters elected a new Congress and a new president, Enrique Pena Nieto, from the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who promised on the campaign trail to overhaul the country's oil industry.

"The investment spending is in line with the 2013-2017 business plan," said Ruiz, adding that Pemex's exploration and production arm was likely to hold steady, with about 80 percent of the total allocation.