Mexico new oil reserves outweigh output in 2008

VENUSTIANO CARRANZA, Mexico, March 18 (Reuters) – Mexico discovered more crude oil and natural gas in 2008 than it took out of the ground for the first time in years, President Felipe Calderon said on Wednesday.

New discoveries left Mexico’s total oil and gas reserves at 43.6 billion barrels of crude equivalent (bce) at the end of 2008, Calderon said. He was referring to the broadest definition of reserves, known in the industry as “3P.”


“Nearly 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil equivalent were incorporated into total reserves,” Calderon told oil workers at a drilling pad at Chicontepec, a sprawling onshore oil field in eastern Mexico. He said the replacement rate for total reserves exceeded 100 percent.

Mexico has stepped up exploration efforts in recent years as yields at its massive offshore Cantarell oil field have declined, prompting worries Mexico could lose its place as one of the world’s top crude exporting nations.

Reuters