Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on August 23, 2014
Mexico’s Pemex Lowers Expected Oil Output for 2014
Mexico’s state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos said Friday that crude-oil output this year would fall to about 2.35 million barrels a day after accounting for water and other impurities coming out of its fields in increasing quantities.
Pemex, as the company is known, said crude-oil measured at the wellhead in the January-to-July period averaged about 2.47 million barrels per day, while the amount of oil obtained after removing water, segregating products and accounting for inventories was 2.34 million barrels a day.
The difference between oil measured at the wellhead and oil delivered to customers grew from 18,000 barrels a day in 2007 to 102,000 barrels a day last year.
“On identifying an increase in the production-distribution balance, Pemex, in coordination with the National Hydrocarbons Commission, carried out an analysis to identify the elements that explain the difference between produced hydrocarbons and those distributed, and to improve the measuring methodology,” it said.
Pemex is required by law to pay taxes on oil as measured at the wellhead, the company said, and the increased amounts of water, along with other “measuring distortions,” have caused an increase in its tax burden. The company said it is installing specialized tanks at its offshore oil terminals to accelerate water evaporation.
David Shields, publisher of Energía a Debate, an oil-industry magazine in Mexico, said the revised figures show what a lot of industry analysts had already suspected: that Pemex’s mature fields were declining more rapidly than the official figures suggested.
“The fields were declining and declining, and then suddenly they stopped declining and production stayed at 2.5 million” barrels a day, said Mr. Shields. “If it turns out that they are just producing 2.3 million, that sounds more logical.”
Pemex’s crude-oil production peaked in 2004 at about 3.4 million barrels a day, according to company figures.
Pemex said in Friday’s statement that it reports both the oil-production and oil-distribution figures to regulatory agencies in Mexico and to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Pemex files financial statements to regulatory agencies because it issues bonds in different markets.
Pemex also said that oil being prepared for export undergoes a stabilization process to remove impurities. The export oil is certified by Pemex, by the buyer, and by a third party to contain no more than 0.5% water, which is the international norm, it said.
Mexico’s oil industry is on the verge of undergoing a transformation in hopes of halting the nation’s steady production declines over the past decade. Pemex, which has been an oil monopoly for 76 years, faces private competition under laws signed by President Enrique Peña Nieto earlier this month.
The Peña administration has said that by bringing in private and foreign firms, as well as by bolstering Pemex, it expects oil production to rise to 3.5 million barrels a day by 2025.
12 Comments on "Mexico’s Pemex Lowers Expected Oil Output for 2014"
Plantagenet on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 10:05 am
Mexico’s oil production appears to have peaked. However they have extensive tight oil resources in NE Mexico that are still untapped.
rockman on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 10:29 am
According to the EIA Mexico’s oil production peaked about 10 years ago. Since then it has declined about 25%.
http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=mx#pet
westexas on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 11:25 am
In terms of total petroleum liquids + other liquids (EIA), Mexico’s production fell from 3.82 mbpd in 2004 to 2.88 mbpd in 2013*, a simple percentage decline of 25%.
Their liquids consumption in 2013 was 2.07 mbpd in 2004 and 2.11 mbpd in 2013, resulting in net exports of 1.75 mbpd in 2004 and 0.77 mbpd in 2013, a simple percentage decline of 56% in net exports in nine years.
In other words, “Net Export Math” in action.
*As noted, this production number seems to be overstated.
westexas on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 11:26 am
Should read:
In terms of total petroleum liquids + other liquids (EIA), Mexico’s production fell from 3.82 mbpd in 2004 to 2.88 mbpd in 2013*, a simple percentage decline of 25%.
Their liquids consumption was 2.07 mbpd in 2004 and 2.11 mbpd in 2013, resulting in net exports of 1.75 mbpd in 2004 and 0.77 mbpd in 2013, a simple percentage decline of 56% in net exports in nine years.
In other words, “Net Export Math” in action.
*As noted, this production number seems to be overstated.
Plantagenet on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 12:08 pm
The Eagle Ford — a prolific tight oil producer in Texas—-extends across the border into NE Mexico. Production from the Mexican part of the EF might eventually add ca. one million bbls of oil/day to Mexico’s total oil production, just as it has done from the same rocks in Texas.
rockman on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 4:16 pm
“Production from the Mexican part of the EF might eventually add ca. one million bbls of oil/day…” Or not. Not all areas along the EFS trend will be as productive. That’s been true for every oil producing formation in the country. The closest major EFS effort to the Mexican border was undertaken by Shell Oil. They paid $1 billion for the lease and then spent at least $2 billion drilling EFS wells. Lost their butts. This project was a major factor in the company abandoning all US shale project. Shell did salvage a bit by selling the lease and 178 wells (each averaging only about 135 bopd) for about $650 million.
If folks aren’t familiar the EFS runs from México parallel to the coast all the way around to Mississippi. Just on the US side of the border the entire formation covers an area about 8X the size of the current hot drilling play in S Texas. Thousands of wells have penetrated the EFS in those eastern areas and no play has developed. The only shale of interest along this trend is the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale which is older/deeper then the EFS. The fact that efforts in that trend have focused on a target more expensive to drill then the EFS should offer some insight to how the oil patch views it’s lack of potential. Just because an area contains the EFS formation doesn’t mean there will be a drilling boom.
OTOH there may be sweeter spots on the Mexican side even better then what we have in Texas. But it will take someone risking many $billions in drilling as well as service companies building and moving tens of $billions of equipment into México to find out. That might prove to be a greater challenge then the geology.
bobinget on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 8:03 pm
For foreign oil companies accustomed to government
corruption, Mexico presents special difficulties. Under the table payoffs are against laws of both nations. However, without bribery, little will get done in Mexico. How to ‘get round’ anti corruption laws may prove harder then extracting crude.
Ron Patterson on Sat, 23rd Aug 2014 9:16 pm
Mexico unlikely to tap its Eagle Ford Shale, experts say
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Mexico-unlikely-to-tap-its-Eagle-Ford-Shale-4944812.php
HOUSTON — Despite the promise of the Mexican Eagle Ford Shale, the high costs and low potential returns likely will deter Mexico’s national oil company from developing those resources for decades to come, an industry expert said Thursday.
SilentRunning on Sun, 24th Aug 2014 12:03 am
How is it possible that Mexico’s oil output is “lower”? The Great Technology God is supposed to always deliver MORE, MORE, MORE.
Nay, we should speak no more of this. Only followers of the Great Lie called “Peak Oil” believe that “Less” is possible. We must believe only in “More”!
DMyers on Sun, 24th Aug 2014 12:43 am
Wow! Who’da thunk Mexico was in decline? Just shocking. Cantarell is incapable of depletion. Remember the Alamo! Cantarell, exportable only to America, for at least a hundred years!
Beery on Sun, 24th Aug 2014 7:39 am
It’s just oil company executives turning down the flow rates to increase profits, or speculators, or mole rats stuck in the casing interrupting the natural flow, or wellhead beavers.
Kenz300 on Sun, 24th Aug 2014 9:50 am
Pemex like all other oil companies needs to diversify and become an “ENERGY COMPANY” and embrace alternative energy sources. It is time to change the business model to encompass wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal, and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste.
The world is in transition to safer, cleaner and cheaper forms of energy. The fossil fuel companies need to embrace the change.