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 Business News | August 2006 
Mexico's Largest Oil Field Output Falls to 4-Year Low
 Bloomberg
| | In this undated photo released by Mexico's National Oil Company, PEMEX, a boat nears an offshore oil rig in the gulf of Mexico near the coast of Campeche, Mexico. Yesterday, the US Senate approved a bill that would open more than 8 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, but it must be reconciled with a vastly more permissive House measure. (AP) |
Mexican crude oil output at Cantarell, the world's second-largest field, fell faster than expected in June to a four-year low, signaling the government will miss production targets.
The field, which accounts for about half of Mexico's crude production, yielded 1.74 million barrels a day in June, 13 percent less than a year ago and the least since November 2001, according to data on the Energy Ministry's web site. Cantarell is the world's No. 2 field by output and Mexico's biggest.
Production is falling faster than the government anticipated, worsening the outlook for Mexican crude exports and public finances. Petroleos Mexicanos, the state oil monopoly, forecast Cantarell output would decline 6 percent this year to average 1.9 million barrels per day.
"The situation is probably much graver than the government would like us to think it is," said David Shields, an independent oil consultant based in Mexico City who has covered the industry for 18 years. "Oil production and oil exports are going to decline considerably over the next three years."
Officials at Pemex, as the oil company is known, weren't available for comment today, a company spokesman in Mexico City said.
Chief Financial Officer Juan Jose Suarez Coppel will hold a conference call tomorrow to discuss second-quarter earnings. Pemex hasn't published second-quarter output by fields on its web site.
Production at Cantarell has averaged 1.84 million barrels daily during the first six months of the year, 10 percent less than in the same period a year ago, according to Energy Ministry data. Taxes on oil sales account for almost 40 percent of the Mexican government's revenue.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adriana Arai in Mexico City at aarai1@bloomberg.net |
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