Mexico presents plan to help deep water oil output

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – President Felipe Calderon sent a proposal to Congress on Wednesday aimed at boosting the Mexico’s flagging oil production by cutting taxes on crude drilled in certain hard-to-reach areas.

Under the bill, state oil monopoly Pemex would pay less taxes on oil pumped out of deep-water fields in the Gulf of Mexico and at the onshore Chicontepec field northeast of the capital.


“It would mean a minimum in (tax) revenue for the state coming from these fields,” the text of the bill said.

Pemex believes the deep-water fields could hold massive amounts of oil. The company is counting on these deposits and Chicontepec to eventually help make up for a decline in production in Mexico’s huge but aging offshore Cantarell oil field.

Reuters