State-run company says four fields in the southern Gulf of Mexico could hold 350m barrels as federal government looks to boost petroleum revenues

The Mexican state oil company Pemex has announced one of its biggest discoveries in years, unveiling new shallow water oil fields in the southern Gulf of Mexico that it says could produce 200,000 barrels per day by mid-2018.



The total proven, probable and possible reserves of the fields could be as high as 350m barrels of crude-oil equivalent, said Pemex’s chief executive officer, Emilio Lozoya.

The new fields off the coast of Tabasco and Campeche states comprised three of light crude and one of heavy crude, and could start coming onstream in 16 months, Pemex said.

“It’s a recent achievement and one of great magnitude,” Lozoya said.

The fields would take around three years to reach their full 200,000 barrel per day capacity, said Jose Antonio Escalera, director of exploration for Pemex.

Pemex described the finds as its biggest exploration success in the last five years after the discoveries in Tsimin-Xux and Ayatsil, also in the southern Gulf.

Located near the super-giant Cantarell oil field found in the 1970s and Pemex’s most productive current field, Ku Maloob Zaap, the finds could boost revenue for the government, which relies on Pemex income for about a third of the federal budget.

Lozoya said the discoveries could also make the company reconsider its production forecasts.

The new hydrocarbon finds were also expected to generate production of 170m cubic feet of gas per day.

Output at Pemex has fallen from a peak of 3.4m barrels per day in 2004 to less than 2.4m currently.

Following a reform to end the company’s oil and gas monopoly, Pemex also faces the prospect of tough competition from oil majors and other private companies coming to Mexico.

Mexico will auction 14 oil and gas exploration and production blocks not far from the new fields this summer, and energy minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell said the finds would make the tenders more attractive.