Mexico's crude and condensate production in December drops by 12% compared to the previous year
The Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex announced on Tuesday that its liquid hydrocarbons production in December fell 12% compared to a year ago, its lowest level of the year. It also missed its government target for the third consecutive month.
In December, crude and condensate output averaged 1,62 million barrels per days (bpd), down from its previous record high of 1.65 million bpd.
November Output
The government has set a target of 1.8m bpd.
Crude oil production fell 13% to 1.35 million barrels per day in December, the lowest in over 40 years.
Pemex has been unable to find major reserves and is in debt to over $20 billion of its suppliers. It attributes the drop in production to depletion of key fields.
Experts and sources attribute, however, some of the lower production to months of missed payment. The government has announced that it will pay its suppliers' debts in stages by March.
The crude processing rate increased by 6% in December to 875.271 bpd, but refining remained below its target of one million bpd at all seven refineries.
Pemex has a new Olmeca Refinery that is a major project in the effort to wean Mexico from expensive motor fuel imports. Olmeca's capacity is 340,000 bpd. Last month it processed 43,178 of that.
Mexico's government said repeatedly that Olmeca should reach its maximum production levels soon, despite the fact it cost more than twice as much initially projected at $8 billion.
Last month, the seven refineries produced together 306,807 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline, 200,000 barrels per day of diesel, and 181,405 barrels per day of fuel oil. This is higher than previous levels, but still well below what's needed to stop fuel imports.
Pemex reported that it exported 807 333 barrels per day of crude oil in December, and imported fuel of 700,788 barrels per day and natural gas of 733.2 billion cubic foot. (Reporting Ana Isabel Martinez Editing Marguerita Choy).
(source: Reuters)
