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Page added on September 23, 2015
EIA: Mexico among largest producers
Mexico is one of the largest producers of petroleum and other liquids in the world, the fourth-largest producer in the Americas after the United States, Canada, and Brazil, and an important partner in US energy trade. In 2014, Mexico accounted for 781,000 b/d, or 11% of US crude oil imports.
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| Image from PEMEX. |
Mexico’s oil production has steadily decreased since 2005 as a result of natural production declines from Cantarell and other large offshore fields. The rate of total production decline has slowed in the past several years. In December 2013, in an effort to address the declines of its domestic oil production, the Mexican government enacted constitutional reforms that ended the 75-year monopoly of Petroleós Mexicanos (PEMEX), the state-owned oil company.
Oil is a crucial component of Mexico’s economy. The oil sector generated 11% of the country’s export earnings in 2014, a proportion that has declined over the past decade, according to Mexico’s central bank, according to the Banco de Mexico. More significantly, earnings from the oil industry (including taxes and direct payments from PEMEX) account for one-third of total government spending, a report from the New York Times said.
Declines in oil production have a direct impact on the country’s economic output and on the government’s fiscal health, particularly as refined petroleum product consumption and import needs grow.
Mexico’s total energy consumption in 2014 consisted mostly of petroleum (45%), followed by natural gas (40%). Natural gas is increasingly replacing oil in electric power generation. However, because Mexico is a net importer of natural gas, higher levels of natural gas consumption will likely depend on more pipeline imports from the United States or liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from other countries. All other fuel types contribute relatively small amounts to Mexico’s overall energy mix. The country also has growing geothermal and wind energy capacity for electricity generation.
Petroleum and other liquids
Mexico produced an average of 2.8 MMb/d of petroleum and other liquids during 2014. Crude oil accounted for 2.4 MMb/d, or 87% of total output, with the remainder attributable to lease condensate, natural gas liquids, and refinery processing gain. Mexico’s total oil production had been declining substantially, 27% from its peak in 2004. Notably, crude oil production in 2014 was at its lowest level since 1986 and has continued to decline thus far in 2015.
Exploration and production
Most of Mexico’s oil production occurs off the eastern coast of the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, near the states of Veracruz, Tabasco, and Campeche. The two main production centers in the area are Cantarell and Ku-Maloob-Zaap (KMZ). In total, approximately 1.8 MMb/d—or three-quarters—of Mexico’s crude oil is produced offshore in the Bay of Campeche. Because of the concentration of Mexico’s oil production offshore, tropical storms or hurricanes passing through the area can disrupt oil operations.
Offshore
More than half of Mexico’s oil production comes from two offshore fields in the northeastern region of the Bay of Campeche—Ku-Maloob-Zaap (KMZ) and Cantarell. Another important source of oil production is southwest in the same bay, offshore the state of Tabasco. Most of the oil produced at KMZ and Cantarell is heavy and marketed as Maya blend, while the oil produced offshore Tabasco is a lighter grade.
8 Comments on "EIA: Mexico among largest producers"
makati1 on Wed, 23rd Sep 2015 8:05 pm
Ad for suckers? On the sites I just checked, Mexico is either 9th or 10th on the list with about 1/4 the production of the top 4 countries in 2014.
Considering the financial/economic problems in the US, KSA, and Mexico, I expect that ranking to drastically change over the next few years as fraking craps out, old fields contract and no new fields are opened.
Take out non-petroleum ‘liquids’ and you get a radically different lineup with Mexico dropping out of the top ten by a wide margin. Aren’t lies …er… ads wonderful?
BobInget on Wed, 23rd Sep 2015 10:10 pm
I’ve been saying all year, ‘Mexico is a net oil importer’. Now I need to do a search to see if I’m mistaken.
WSJ
By LAURENCE ILIFF
May 14, 2014 6:03 p.m. ET
MEXICO CITY—Mexico has become a net importer of petroleum products in its trade with the U.S. for the first time in at least 40 years, a significant industrial shift for a country that has long been proud of its status as one of the world’s top crude-oil exporters.
Mexico still exports more than a million barrels a day of crude oil, but it imports just about everything else: natural gas, gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas, and petrochemicals. In the first three months of the year, the country posted a petroleum deficit of about $551 million with the U.S., according to recent Bank of Mexico data.
BobInget on Wed, 23rd Sep 2015 10:19 pm
Some oil producers may be in fact tops in the world, like the USA. All year the US has averaged 7.5 Million B p/d imports. A good portion of that goes out again as finished product to Mexico, for instance.
Americans are driving more as the price of gasoline continues to fall.
rockman on Thu, 24th Sep 2015 6:37 am
Bob – It’s all part of the sloppy/intentional misrepresentation of the various hydrocarbon metrics tossed out. Many example: the KSA producers X bbls/day but they don’t subtract the internal consumption to show the net; the US is the world’s largest importer yet yearly the US exports refined products made from 1 billion bbls of that imported oil; the US exports NG to Mexico…but the US doesn’t have a surplus – we’re still a net NG importer. A believe or not when I’ve tossed out that last FACT to my cohorts in the oil patch the majority didn’t know that was the case. IOW even folks in the biz get mislead by MSM headlines: there is no surplus of NG in the US…much of our consumption is imported from Canada.
And some folks get rather hostile when you start exposing the BS they hold so true. Consider the response I get when I point out the LIE that there’s a US “ban” on exporting oil. For the first 6 months of 2015 the US, according to our stat god the EIA, has been exporting crude oil at the annual rate of 175 million bbls/yr. Which also ties to the other great LIE: there is no US refinery market for light oil such as the Eagle Ford Shale production. Prior to the EFS boom refiners had to import a lot of light oil to blend with the heavy oils. Why? Because refineries are designed to crack a very narrow range of oil: 30 to 32 API. They have to blend the 45 API oils with the 23 API oil because that’s their most efficient process. Which is why tens of millions of bbls of EFS production has been tankered to refineries on the east coast of Canada: so they can blend with their heavy oil imports. Yet you’ll still see folks stating that Gulf Coast refineries can’t crack EFS production despite the FACT they are using it to substitute for much of the light oil they used to import.
I could toss out dozens of other examples but that’s enough for now. So sit back and watch for folks trying to protect their sacred cows I just gored. LOL.
BobInget on Thu, 24th Sep 2015 8:23 am
Rockman, It really seems a pity US is a net NG importer. Wide spread flaring seems commonplace for lack of connects.
NG, not nuclear, seems “Too Cheap to Meter”
Instead of embracing NG as a viable crude oil alternative.
NG is still treated as a disposal problem.
We should be developing markets outside of cement, chemicals, fertilizer, plastics, heating and electrical power.
BobInget on Thu, 24th Sep 2015 8:35 am
Religious fervor seems to have rum amok in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/24/middleeast/stampede-hajj-pilgrimage/
The death toll could reach a thousand.
IMO, this is terrible optics for House of Saud.
Muslims, the world over might begin to think this
tragedy coming on top of a falling crane disaster killing 250 while praying in one of the most holy or holy places in Islam.
One more Hajj ‘bad mistake’ and the current set of Royals better tough it out in Paris till things calm down.
Kenz300 on Thu, 24th Sep 2015 9:04 am
Mexico like many other oil producing countries need to diversify their economies and rely less on fossil fuels. The hand writing is on the wall.
Fossil fuels are killing the planet…….
Climate Change is real… we need to deal with the cause (fossil fuels)
rockman on Thu, 24th Sep 2015 10:21 am
Bob – I doubt we’ll see much of a change as we go down the PO path given that more NG might be wasted in an effort to max oil production. They have tightened the flaring rules in the Bakken but as production begins to slide there could easily be a push to allow more flaring in an effort for more oil drilling. Unfortunately the economics are difficult the change: if the pipeline connect cost more than companies can sell the NG for the pipelines won’t get built. It’s as I’ve told mineral owners before: you don’t like my flaring your NG? OK: I’ll deliver the NG to you for free. It doesn’t cost me more to route the NG to a flare stack or a pipeline connection. All you have to do is pay for the pipeline and you get 100% of the revenue instead of just your royalty. That always terminates the conversation since no mineral owner is going to spend $2 million to get a $1.5 million revenue.