Pemex July Oil Output Falls 12% as Cantarell Declines

(Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos, the third- largest supplier of oil to the U.S., said production fell 12 percent in July from a year earlier as output declined at Cantarell, the world’s largest offshore oil field.

July’s daily output dropped to 2.782 million barrels from 3.166 million barrels in the same month last year, the state- owned oil company, known as Pemex, said today on its Web site. In June, Pemex produced 2.839 million barrels.


Daily production at Cantarell, which first began pumping oil in 1979, plummeted 36 percent in July to 973,668 barrels from 1.526 million, according to an Energy Ministry Web site.

Faster-than-expected declines at Cantarell prompted Pemex to lower its oil production target in July for the second time in as many months. The Mexico City-based company reduced its 2008 daily production target to 2.8 million barrels from 2.9 million.

Bloomberg