Petroleos

Mexico’s national oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos SA (Pemex), next year plans to offer more multiple service contracts, similar to one it did this year with a U.S. and Canadian company, to encourage more exploration and production in the country, Pemex Director General Raul Munoz Leos told analysts in New York City on Thursday. Munoz said that even though the Mexican constitution limits foreign investment in the country’s energy industry, he is confident that contracts could be written to improve investments by service companies and integrated energy companies.

In the next five years, Mexican oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) needs to spend up to $33 billion on exploration and production activities or its crude and natural gas production could decline by as much as one third, forcing the country to become more of an importer than an exporter, according to the company’s director. Mexico currently is the seventh largest oil producer in the world, and is one of the top three exporters to the United States.

The general director of Mexico’s oil and gas monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said last week that while he supports more private investments in certain sectors to make the country’s energy resources more efficient, the oil and gas industry will remain under government control. Raul Munoz Leos agreed that Mexico faces energy problems unless changes are made, but said the country can get from here to there without privatization.

The general director of Mexico’s oil and gas monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said last week that while he supports more private investments in certain sectors to make the country’s energy resources more efficient, the oil and gas industry will remain under government control. Raul Munoz Leos agreed that Mexico faces energy problems unless changes are made, but said the country can get from here to there without privatization.

BJ Services and Precision Drilling were awarded a major fielddevelopment contract by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). The projectentails the drilling and completing of 240 gas wells in the BurgosBasin, which covers more than 21,000 square miles and is located inthe northeastern part of Mexico near Camargo.

BJ Services and Precision Drilling were awarded a major fielddevelopment contract by Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). The projectentails the drilling and completing of 240 gas wells in the BurgosBasin, which covers more than 21,000 square miles and is located inthe northeastern part of Mexico near Camargo.

Coral Energy and Mexico-based Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) completed their 104-mile pipeline linking the Pemex pipeline system at Arguelles in the Mexico state of Tamaulipas with Coral’s pipeline system on the King Ranch in South Texas.

Although a lot of leg work still remains to be done, PetroleosMexicanos, the national oil company of Mexico, plans to drill fivedeepwater wells in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in the next sevento 10 years, according to a petroleum engineer for PemexExploration & Production.

El Paso Energy’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline unit agreed in principlewith Pemex Gas Y Petroquimica Basica, a subsidiary of PetroleosMexicanos, to interconnect facilities between the companies’pipelines. The new facilities will be built from the end ofTennessee’s Donna lateral in Hidalgo County, TX, across theinternational border to Pemex’s existing facilities at Reynosa,Mexico. The interconnect is expected to be in service by January1999.