Mexico Hits 15-Month Oil Production High
National oil production in Mexico reached a 15-month high in January according to CNH, a milestone that will be welcomed by the private players, PEMEX and the national government alike.
January’s production figure of 1.724MMb/d is the highest since October 2018 when 1.744MMb/d were produced, and signaled a run of three-months of increasing production numbers. The new results also showed a 6.42 percent year-on-year rise in production figures, with January 2020 adding an additional 104Mb/d to those seen in January 2019.
The stabilization of production is an important signal to the Mexican government, which together with PEMEX and private players has been searching to reverse the drastically falling national production rates.
While PEMEX’s output has improved since October 2018, private players have been constantly growing their input into production. In the same period, the production rates of private companies have increased from 28.5Mb/d to 48.96Mb/d, with a notable jump in production of 31.1Mb/d in June 2019 to 39.1Mb/d in July 2019 as the Mitzón field, operated by Italian oil company Eni came online.
However, national oil production is still lagging behind the rates predicted by PEMEX director Octavio Romero, who stated that the NOC would hit 1.8MMb/d by the end of 2019.
Oil production has fallen by more than 50 percent since Mexico’s oil production peak of 3.454MMb/d in December 2003 following the plateauing and drop in production from Mexico’s most significant oil field to data, the Cantarell Complex. Mexico’s former jewel, situated some 80km into the Bay of Campeche accounted for over 2.1MMb/d at the end of 2004, with Akal standing out as the complex’s prize field.