Oil production falling at Cantarell as predicted

Output at Mexico’s most important oil field has fallen steeply this year, raising fears that wells that generate 60 percent of the country’s petroleum are in the throes of a major decline.

Production at Cantarell, the world’s second-largest oil complex, in the shallow Gulf of Mexico waters off the shore of Mexico’s southern Campeche state, averaged just over 1.8 million barrels a day in May, according to recent government figures. That’s a 7 percent drop from the first of the year and the lowest monthly output since July 2005, when Hurricane Emily forced the evacuation of thousands of oil workers from the region.

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