Proven oil and gas reserves in Mexico are now down 40% in just 10 years, falling again this year by 7% as new discoveries fail to keep up with production. Reserves sat at 8.483 billion barrels at the end of 2018.
Proven oil and gas reserves in Mexico are now down 40% in just 10 years, falling again this year by 7% as new discoveries fail to keep up with production. Reserves sat at 8.483 billion barrels of crude oil equivalent (boe) at the end of 2018.
The data was published on Friday by Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).
Mexico Proven oil and gas reserves at 12.31.2018
- 6.46 billion barrels of oil
- 10.02 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Over the past decade reserves have slid more than 40 percent with Pemex’s making very few discoveries. The vast majority of Mexico’s proven reserves have been contributed by national oil company Pemex,
Pemex maintained a monopoly in Mexico until a 2013 constitutional reform allowed private producers to enter the sector. The move was partly in response to dwindling reserves and plummetting oil and gas prices. There is but a small amount of the reserves tied to private and foreign oil companies.
The ‘non-Pemex’ reserves include around 251 million boe from two shallow water blocks auctioned in late 2015 to Italy’s Eni and Argentina’s Hokchi Energy backed by British oil major BP. Juan Carlos Zepeda, head of the CNH remarked. “What we see here is the first certification of reserves that are being presented by two companies that received contracts at auction,”, Zepeda said that reserves from the two blocks have tripled since the companies took them over from Pemex.
Zepeda said the ‘Zama’ discovery by a consortium comprising U.S. firm Talos Energy, Britain’s Premier Oil and Mexico’s Sierra Oil & Gas, has yet to be certified but is estimated to hold over 1 billion barrels. However “That will come later,” he said.
Pemex’s onshore Ixachi discovery announced in late 2017, which added nearly 98 million boe is also included in the proven reserves total. .
Source: CNH
From the TradersCommunity Research Desk