Mexico’s Proven Oil And Gas Reserves Fall 3% In 2013

Mexico’s proven oil and gas reserves fell 3.1 percent in 2013, according to energy ministry data, as the nation’s once-ample shallow water deposits begin to run dry.

The proven Mexican reserves totaled 13.439 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), or down by nearly 430 million boe compared with the previous year.

Nearly three-quarters of the reserves, or 9.812 billion boe, are made up of crude oil.

The new estimate for so-called 1P certified reserves was set on Jan. 1, 2014, and covers oil and gas fields believed to have a 90 percent chance of being extracted with existing technology.

Mexico, the world’s tenth-biggest crude producer, has not been able to discover and certify new oil and gas fields as fast as it has extracted resources from current production.

Proven oil and gas reserves reached 13.868 billion boe as of Jan. 1, 2013.

Reserves have remained relatively stable since 2009, but Pemex’s lack of investment in exploration over many years has led to a precipitous decline in the country’s reserve base.

Mexico boasted proven reserves of about 55 billion boe in 1990, but reserves have fallen sharply since.

Mexico has the third-largest proven oil reserves in Latin America, behind Venezuela and Brazil.

A landmark energy reform passed in December promises to lure major new streams of private investment into Mexico’s oil and gas sector, eventually boosting reserves and output.

Secondary legislation that will set commercial and other regulatory terms of the reform championed by President Enrique Pena Nieto is expected by May.

5 Comments on "Mexico’s Proven Oil And Gas Reserves Fall 3% In 2013"

bobinget on Mon, 14th Apr 2014 11:49 pm 



Another reason to smoke only domestic pot.
It’s time to stop being dependent on Mexican weed.
There is no reason this once proud nation cannot stand on its own feet, lift ourselves up by our boot straps,
put our shoulders to the wheel and grow our own..

Oh.. sorry, you were talking about oil? I was wondering how Mexicans could smoke it all themselves.

shortonoil on Tue, 15th Apr 2014 11:59 am 



“The new estimate for so-called 1P certified reserves was set on Jan. 1, 2014, and covers oil and gas fields believed to have a 90 percent chance of being extracted with existing technology.”

The assumption implied in the term “existing technology” is that society can afford it. We are only at the $100/barrel point, and the world’s economy already requires life support (Central Bank printing) to keep it from collapsing altogether. Until it is understood that applying technology to petroleum production is not going to increase its ability to supply energy we will continue to chase unicorns, and sugar plum fairies around the planet. The technology fairy is not going to save the age of oil! It constantly requires a larger, and larger portion of its own rewards.

http://www.thehillsgroup.org

Davy, Hermann, MO on Tue, 15th Apr 2014 12:47 pm 



Short brings up a very good point about the relationship between economy and activity. Economy is a complex self-organizing system of millions of individual transactions. There is only so much influence that can be applied from the top and often this influence actually causes unintended problems. We see this today with wealth transfer from a manipulation of money creation. In the old normal productive activity created money supply and the amount of activity was governed loosely by interest rates. Today it is the other way around with interest rate at zero and the central banks creating the money. The effect of this is financial corporate welfare under the guise of trickle down economic activity through inflation of the economy. As time goes on the net effect is a parasitic cannibalization of the real productive economy by an inflating bubble of financialization (debt) of the economy. In effect there is no real growth. There is only pseudo growth of the rich at the expense of the real economy. This is being translated into the oil sector by an increase in costs and a compression of capex. As the cost of production and exploration rises and the availability of capex is compressed activity decreases. This is a vicious circle that will be unable to be broken. The central banks have used their inflation tools and now are loaded up. Further debt expansion becomes exponentially dangerous hence the “taper”. Look for constraints on once “banked” projects. The latest I have read about is the “Kashagan debacle”. This is a project on the technical limits of “Big Oil” and it is a failing proposition. It will be like a golf course construction. It is usually the second or third contractor that finally makes money after the 1st or second is bankrupted. This is OK in a micro sense but it cannot last long on a macro scale. Look to all these grandiose schemes for increase production like ultra-deep water, arctic, and global shale production to languish. We have started the decent folks so hold on to your drawers!

shortonoil on Tue, 15th Apr 2014 2:32 pm 



“The latest I have read about is the “Kashagan debacle”

Kazakhstan has two major fields, Karachaganak and Kashagan, Karachaganak (the larger field) is a condensate field, that has never produced much of anything. Kashagan is an oil field, and hasn’t produced much of anything either. Kashagan is a 13 Gb field that is producing 400,000 barrels a day. On a Production to Reservoir ratio that’s like Ghawar producing 2.4 mb/d rather than over 5. The reason that Kashagan has performed so poorly is that the relative permeability of the field is 2 mD. Getting a 43 deg API crude to flow through it is like trying to pour concrete through a tea strainer. The industry has poured $50 billion into this mud hole, for an upfront production costs of $125,000/barrel per day. Someone may eventually make some money on it, but the petroleum industry as a whole is losing its butt on this project.

This is the perfect example of reaching the point of diminishing returns on technology for the petroleum industry. We see it in the shale industry, ultra deep, and extra heavy development. The underlying problem is that a barrel of petroleum just does not contain enough energy to support this type of activity. As long as loose monetary policy makes funds available for such development, it will continue. Energy will flow from the last small remaining supply of high quality petroleum to a Nebraskan corn field. Sovereign, and private debt will continue to grow.

The back side of the oil age curve will look nothing like what was experienced on the front side. Until the ramifications of the approaching end of oil are appreciated by industry, government, and the general public, we will continue to dig the hole we are in a little deeper.

http://www.thehillsgroup.org

westexas on Wed, 16th Apr 2014 12:54 am 



I believe that “Cashisgone” is currently shut-in.