PEMEX - Cantarell Production Declines By 24% In 12 Months - NineMSN [View All]

Mexican President Felipe Calderón issued a desperate plea to Congress at the weekend to approve his energy reform proposals after figures showed that oil production had slumped to a nine-year low.

The rapidly declining production in one of the world's top 10 oil-producing nations comes amid a global supply crunch that has sent the price of international crude to records in recent weeks. On Friday, Pemex, Mexico's state oil monopoly, reported that April average daily production had fallen to 2.77m a day compared with 2.85m the previous month and 3.18m barrels in April 2007.

According to Pemex, production at Cantarell – one of the world's largest oil complexes, which accounts for roughly half of Mexico's total daily output – has shrunk 24 per cent in the past 12 months alone.

The latest data highlight the increasing difficulties faced by Pemex, which has long suffered from insufficient funds for exploration, ageing existing fields, and Mexico's constitution, which prohibits it from entering joint-risk contracts with third parties. "The rate of decline is much quicker than we had anticipated," Jordy Herrera, under-secretary for energy, told the FT this month.

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