Official: Mexico spending on oil exploration rising, but problems in infrastructure remain
Mexico’s state-run oil monopoly will spend more than $13 billion, on oil exploration, extraction and production this year – but its outdated infrastructure system remains a serious liability, a presidential spokesman said Friday.
Ruben Aguilar said state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos’ 2005 budget for recovering and readying new oil for the market represents more than double the amount spent on those activities five years ago.
In 2004, Pemex’s daily production was nearly 3.4 million barrels of crude oil, the highest in Mexican history, Aguilar said. Carlos Morales, head of exploration and production at Pemex said this week production reached 3.4 million barrels a day of crude between April and June.
Pemex is one of the world’s biggest oil producers and a top supplier of crude to the United States.
The oil monopoly gives about two-thirds of its revenue to the Mexican government to cover taxes and royalties, an arrangement that often leads the company to report net losses. But high crude prices bolstered Pemex’s second-quarter results, even as the company’s production levels held steady and exports declined to 1.8 million barrels a day, a 3 percent drop compared to the same period last year.
When asked about a series of accidents that have injured and killed Pemex employees and contract workers as well as caused environmental problems in recent months, Aguilar said “it’s absolutely right that the platform and infrastructure of Pemex is obsolete.”
Pemex has announced measures to improve its infrastructure.
“Specifically, the pipelines are more than 20 years obsolete,” Aguilar said.
About 40 percent of the country’s 35,000 miles of pipelines are damaged or corroded. Many of those pipelines were built during the last oil boom, in the 1960s and 1970s.
Congress has approved only about one-third of the annual funds needed to maintain and upgrade the most antiquated ducts, officials say.
Also Friday, Aguilar refused to say if Mexican President Fox would sign tax rules for Pemex passed by legislators in June. The bill would give the oil concern a lower tax rate on oil and gas production from new projects, freeing up money for more investment.
Pemex estimates the new tax code will save it more than $2 billion in 2006 and as much as $13 billion over four years.
More: mywesttexas.com
Official: Mexico Spending on Exploration Up
Mexico's state-run oil monopoly will spend more than 137 billion pesos (US$13 billion, euro10.5 billion) on oil exploration, extraction and production this year - but its outdated infrastructure system remains a serious liability, a presidential spokesman said Friday.
Ruben Aguilar said state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos' 2005 budget for recovering and readying new oil for the market represents more than double the amount spent on those activities five years ago.
In 2004, Pemex's daily production was nearly 3.4 million barrels of crude oil, the highest in Mexican history, Aguilar said. Carlos Morales, head of exploration
Tropical storm Jose, the 10th of the season, dumped heavy rain on eastern Mexico on Tuesday but was downgraded to a depression as it moved over the central highlands.
Mexico withdrew storm warnings along its Gulf Coast as Jose weakened after hitting the coast of Veracruz state, some distance from its main oil ports.
Emergency services feared Jose could trigger landslides in the mountains and cause lowland flooding.
"Heavy rain will increase the chance of mudslides in mountain areas, raise river levels and some floods in low-altitude zones of Veracruz and Puebla," Mexico's civil protection agency said in a statement.
The
Mexico states want Fox to veto Pemex tax reform
Mexican President Vicente Fox is under pressure to veto a much-vaunted law to ease taxes on state oil monopoly Pemex, as state governors complain their fiscal revenues will plummet as a result.
State governors want to meet Fox before he approves the law, passed by Congress in June and set to save Pemex billions of dollars in future taxes. A top government official said Tuesday it was possible Fox could block the measure.
"The executive branch has until Sept. 1 to decide whether this law could be vetoed or remain the way it
Mexico's Fox Seeks to Use Oil Revenue to Cut International Debt
Mexican President Vicente Fox's proposed spending plan for 2006 seeks to use revenue from record high oil prices to reduce the nation's international debt to its lowest in more than three decades.
``High oil revenue has a non-recurring nature, so we must use it to strengthen our infrastructure or save it to mitigate the impact of a possible decline in oil prices on public finances and the national economy,'' Fox, 63, said in a message to legislators in the budget.
Fox's plan would allow Mexico, the world's sixth-largest oil
(BW) Anadarko Announces Another Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Discovery
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) today announced its successful participation in another new deepwater oil discovery, at the Big Foot prospect in Walker Ridge block 29, about 225 miles south of New Orleans. Anadarko holds a 15 percent working interest in the block.
Operated by Chevron, the Big Foot discovery well is in approximately 5,000 feet of water and was drilled to a total depth of 25,127 feet. Chevron reported that the well encountered as much as 300 feet or more of net oil pay. A sidetrack well has begun drilling to delineate the
BHP strikes oil in the Gulf of Mexico
BHP Billiton's oil and gas division has broken its run of bad news by coming up with a big oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, with the drilling of the Knotty Head exploration well in deep waters off New Orleans.
The well encountered more than 500 feet of net oil pay, prompting speculation that it could rank as a 500 million barrel-plus discovery for BHP (25 per cent) and the other 25 per cent partners — Chevron, Anadarko and Canada's Nexen.
The oil find is the deepest discovery to date in the prolific Gulf
Official sees growth in Mexico economy
Mexico's economy could grow by 4 to 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter and 3.2 to 3.3 percent for the year, and the government will be able to offer pensions for the elderly poor in 2006, a government official said Wednesday.
Government institutions "have begun to give other services ... in ways that you are going to see soon," Eduardo Sojo, head of the presidential office of public policy, told a news conference.
"Pensions for elderly people who are in extreme poverty -- you'll see that next year," he said.
Outlining new anti-poverty initiatives, Sojo stressed that the
Gulf of Mexico's depths beckon
DEEPWATER MILLENNIUM, Gulf of Mexico About 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, an oil drilling ship the size of two football fields with a wide hole in its hull and a 200-foot derrick on its deck is back in operation.
Thanks to its ability to perform successfully in waters as deep as 10,000 feet, or about 3,000 meters, the Deepwater Millennium is considered the Cadillac of oil and gas exploration, allowing companies to find energy resources in remote or ultra-deep locations that were, until recently, considered out of reach.
But even as oil companies push farther out
Lopez Vows to Make Mexico Self Sufficient in Fuels
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the frontrunner in presidential polls for more than two years, pledged to make Mexico self sufficient in natural gas and gasoline in three years by increasing spending on the energy industry.
``Within three years, it's our promise and goal stop importing natural gas and gasoline,'' Lopez Obrador said during a Mexico City business conference.
Lopez Obrador said the lack of new refineries is ``criminal'' and promised to modernize the country's energy industry. Mexico now imports gasoline and natural gas from the U.S.
The candidate from the Democratic
Mexico Oil Bill May Be Revised
Mexican President Vicente Fox has sent a tax-reform proposal for state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, back to Congress for revisions.
Fox shares the objectives of the reform, which was designed to help Pemex direct more funds to invest in exploration, production and other operational activities, a news release from the Interior Department said.
Source: news.moneycentral.msn.com
