Pemex maintains crude output in March

OREANDA-NEWS. April 27, 2016. March crude production for Mexico's state-run Pemex was flat from the prior month at 2.217mn b/d but down by 4.4pc from a year ago.

Including NGLs, liquids production reached 2.507mn b/d, or 0.3pc less than in February, according to the company's latest data.

Mexico's crude production lost more than 1bn b/d since a 2004 peak of 3.4mn b/d.

The government hopes its ground breaking 2014 energy reform, which revoked Pemex's monopoly in the oil sector, will help reverse the trend.

Since the reform, Mexico has increasingly relied on cheap natural gas imports from the US. Gas production was down 1.5pc to 6.03 Bcf/d compared with the previous month of February and down more than 8pc from a year ago.

Gas imports, however, jumped by nearly 40pc from a year ago, reaching 1.796 Bcf/d last month.

Crude exports fell by 14.3pc last month to 1.063mn b/d, which was compensated by recovering crude prices.

In March, Mexico's crude export basket averaged \\$29.38/bl, up by 20pc from February.

Export revenues climbed by 9.9pc to \\$968mn compared with February but were still nearly 70pc below their levels in June 2014, before global oil prices started to sharply decline.

Nearly 59pc of all exports went to the Americas, followed by Europe (20pc) and the Far East and other regions (18pc).