Pemex makes Mexico’s biggest onshore oil find in 15 years

MEXICO CITY: Mexico´s national oil company Pemex has made its biggest onshore oil discovery in 15 years with a find in the eastern state of Veracruz, President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Friday.

Pena Nieto said Pemex made the discovery by drilling its onshore Ixachi well, near the municipality of Cosamaloapan, and that the overall field is believed to hold some 350 million barrels of proven, probable and possible reserves.

Pena Nieto, who pushed through Congress a sweeping energy reform in 2013 that ended Pemex´ decades-long monopoly, made the announcement at the company´s Tula refinery.

He was flanked by his energy minister, Pemex´ chief executive and a range of other government and union officials.

While crude export revenue once contributed as much as 40 percent of government revenue, that figure has dropped to under 20 percent as oil prices have slumped in recent years.

The announcement confirmed a Reuters story from earlier on Friday. The onshore field´s original volume in place is estimated at 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

The light oil field should begin producing by the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019, Pemex CEO Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya said in a phone interview.