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 Business News | April 2008 
Mexican Oil Production Falls 7.8 Percent in First Quarter
 Associated Press
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Mexico City – Mexico's state-run oil company says production dropped 7.8 percent in the first quarter as current reserves dwindle.
Petroleos Mexicanos also said Monday that oil exports had dropped 12.5 percent over the same quarter a year ago.
Production fell 5.3 percent to an average 3.1 million barrels a day in 2007, led by declines at Mexico's main Cantarell offshore oil field. Pemex only has enough proven oil reserves to last nine years at current production rates.
The company did boost natural gas production, reporting a record 6.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day in the first quarter, up 13.2 percent over the same period last year.
Mexico Oil Exports to Fade Without New Contracts
Reuters
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Rome - Mexico could lose its status as one of the world's largest oil exporters if controversial contracts to boost private-sector involvement are kept out of a planned energy reform, a top energy official said on Monday.
Mexico is the world's sixth-largest oil producer, and a leading supplier to the United States. The government wants to overhaul the energy sector to allow increased upstream foreign investment and help find new reserves in its deep waters.
Reform proposals include allowing state oil company Pemex to sign contracts with a performance bonus for foreign companies, but the left-wing main opposition strongly opposes including the contracts, seeing them as a form of privatization.
"Pemex won't have all the instruments at its disposal that it needs to maintain output and oil exports without this type of contract," Benjamin Contreras, Mexico's undersecretary for power, told Reuters on the sidelines at an energy conference in Rome. "We need to give Pemex all the flexibility we can to get the most out of our resources. These contracts are no different than contracts that give executives a bonus payment for performing well. If the companies produce more oil, they get paid more." Mexico's output and reserves are declining, and Pemex could lose 500,000 barrels per day of oil output within 10 years if it does not start exploring deeper waters in the Gulf of Mexico immediately, Contreras said. Yields at Mexico's largest oilfield, Cantarell, are slipping fast and the country lacks new production to compensate.
"Just to maintain our current production profile, we have to start exploring the deepwater now," he said.
Pemex says it will struggle to reach technologically challenging deep-sea oil reserves without experienced partners.
There were no plans to hold a referendum on the reform, as some on the left have called for, Contreras said.
"The mechanism for this kind of reform is congressional dialogue, not a referendum," he said.
Mexico produces around 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and exports about half of that, making it the world's No. 10 oil exporter. |
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