Tag Archive for: PETRÓLEOS MEXICANOS

Pemex Likely to Return Very Small Amount of Fields to State: CEO

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By Adam Williams and Lucia Kassai

“Petroleos Mexicanos plans to develop most of the 120 oilfields the government granted the state-owned company, returning “only a very low percentage,” according to the company’s chief executive officer.

The production regions were given to Pemex, as the company is known, when Mexico’s oil industry opened to private competition in 2014. Pemex had three years to invest in the fields or return them to the regulator to be auctioned in future bidding rounds.

As the three-year deadline nears, Pemex is likely to maintain the majority of these fields, Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya, the company’s CEO, said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Houston.

“We are trying to make progress to make sure we meet the regulator’s requirements, especially the ones where we know there is oil and where there is production,” he said. “I think we will develop the fields that have been assigned to us.”

Appointed as Pemex’s CEO last year, Gonzalez Anaya’s impact on the company’s ailing financial standing has been immediate. After four years of losses, Pemex yesterday reported first-quarter earnings of 87.9 billion pesos ($4.6 billion).

“The last time we posted a profit the price of oil was $100 per barrel. To post a profitable result when the price of oil is around $40 is important,” Gonzalez Anaya said. “This is no small achievement.”

Production Growth

Pemex, which has seen oil output fall every year since 2004, hopes production will stabilize this year and possibly increase as soon as 2018, he said. In addition to joint ventures planned in onshore, shallow and deep waters fields, Pemex is also looking to “cluster small allocations and small fields so that we can migrate them together,” he said.

The company is counting on a recently implemented oil price hedge — independent of the Mexican government’s hedging program — to give Pemex “some degree of certainty to our investment and to our planning,” Gonzalez Anaya said. Pemex, which hadn’t hedged independently from the government in 11 years, will likely use the tool again next year, he said.

Pemex will also seek additional hydrogen unit joint ventures at its refineries, similar to the partnership signed with Air Liquide SA in February at the Tula refinery, he said.

“This model will be replicated for other refineries, and I think things will run much better,” Gonzalez Anaya said of the additional partnerships planned for refineries.”

4 de mayo de 2017 13:04 GMT-5

Bloomberg

Down 10%, Mexico Oil Reserves Gone in 9 Years without New Finds

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“Mexico’s existing oil reserves are dwindling so fast the country could go dry within nine years without new discoveries.

That’s the message from the National Hydrocarbons Commission, which said Friday that the reserves fell 10.6 percent to 9.16 billion barrels in 2016, from 10.24 billion barrels a year earlier. Once the world’s third largest crude producer, Mexico’s proven reserves have declined 34 percent since 2013.

The decline in proven reserves is driven by record-low drilling activity the last three years, according to CNH Commissioner Hector Acosta. State-owned producer Petroleos Mexicanos drilled 21 wells last year, a record low, after averaging 31 per year since 2010.

“If there isn’t drilling, it is going to be difficult to incorporate new finds,” Acosta said. “The production figures and indicators that we are observing, tell us that there are flaws in the drilling activities being carried out by Pemex.”

The diminished production comes from a combination of reduced investment and the continued maturation of fields, said Cesar Alejandro Mar, Adjunct Director of Reserves. He set 8.9 years as a time frame for the reserves to run out if no new exploration occurs.

Pemex, meanwhile, said in an e-mailed statement that it added 684 million barrels of probable crude to the reserves last year, and “will continue working to increase reserves and restitution rates to higher levels.”

Monopoly End

Mexico ended Pemex’s production monopoly in 2013 to let private operators develop oil in the country for the first time since the 1930s. Production is set to fall below 2 million daily barrels this year, the lowest levels since 1980, Pemex has said. Overall, crude production has declined every year since 2004.

Given increased crude development activity anticipated in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico by private producers, the country’s production is forecast to climb to 3.4 million barrels a day by 2040, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.

Italian producer Eni SpA, which won rights to develop a Gulf of Mexico field in 2015, recorded the country’s offshore find by a foreign company in more than seven decades on March 23.

“Mexico isn’t the only country that has seen its reserves diminished during a difficult time for the industry worldwide,” said Juan Carlos Zepeda, a CNH Commissioner, when the numbers were released. “International oil companies are just now starting to return to an improved investment rhythm.”

by Adam Williams /  Bloomberg

31 de marzo de 2017

 

 

 

 

New provisions for the use of associated natural gas

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The new technical provisions emitted by CNH (National Hydrocarbons Commission) came into effect January 8th, which include the use and maximization of  the economic value of associated natural gas in the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons.

The main objective of these provisions is the structuring of programs based on procedures, requirements and criteria to define the goal of taking advantage of natural gas associated by holders of allocations and contracts for exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons, both in non-conventional and conventional deposits.

For this purpose, the CNH will convene through hearings Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) that jointly review manifests or use programs delivered to the Commission. Whatever is derived from the review, a work plan will be established so that in 2016 Pemex can present the Programas de Aprovechamiento de Gas Natural Asociado for each current assignment. PEMEX may refer to the Commission for consideration, modifications to use with the Programas de Aprovechamiento de Gas Natural Asociado as a result of the presentation for approval or modification of plans.

Finally, it is important to mention that these provisions are of general observance and compulsory for oil operators carrying out activities of exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons, which involve extraction and utilization of associated natural gas.

associated natural gas