Mexican leader acts to increase dwindling oil production

In a bid to offset plummeting yields from Mexico’s largest oil field, President Felipe Calderon unveiled plans Friday to boost production from a cluster of oil fields known as Ku-Maloob-Zaap.

He also announced an effort to speed its offshore exploration effort through an expanded technical cooperation agreement with the Brazilian oil company Petrobras.

“We are facing the urgent challenge of exploiting our underwater reserves,” said Calderon while inaugurating a $250 million production platform at Ku-Maloob-Zaap.
Falling oil production is a worry here, because oil earnings are Mexico’s top source of foreign income and account for 40 percent of the federal budget.

The platform, billed as Mexico’s largest, will enable drilling on 28 new wells at Ku-Maloob-Zaap, a sprawling complex of fields that lie 65 miles northeast of Ciudad del Carmen in Campeche Bay. With estimated reserves of 4.9 billion barrels, Ku-Maloob-Zaap is the country’s second-largest source of crude after the Cantarell field, a nearby oil giant accounting for 60 percent of Mexico’s production.

Houston Chronicle