18-07-08 Cantarell, Mexico's largest oilfield, will produce a little over 600,000 bpd in 2012.
That is equivalent to a reduction of between 400,000 and 500,000 barrels compared to its current level and 70 % less than what it contributed in 2004, when its production exceeded 2 mm bpd.

The deputy director of the Northwest Marine Region of Pemex [Mexican Petroleum] Exploration and Production (PEP), Javier Hinojosa Puebla, said that Cantarell's production volume at the end of this federal administration will be above 600,000 barrels. He rejected the idea that the oilfield's decline will be more pronounced than expected.
"It is performing in accordance with our simulation model that has a tolerance range of +/-5 %," he said.

At the end of his participation in the debate forum entitled Policy and Tools to Promote National Industry Related to the Oil Sector, the official emphasized that PEP is doing the work necessary to manage the oilfield's natural decline. Between 2000 and 2007, the oilfield contributed 56.8 % of the nation's total crude oil production, with an average contribution of 1.8 mm bpd.
"We are incorporating improved secondary recovery projects, the optimization of exploitation, the drilling of unconventional wells, dehydration, gas handling, and nitrogen control," in order to manage the field's decline, he indicated.

The history of large oilfields throughout the world shows that once they reach their maximum production level, their decline is a rapid phenomenon that is hard to control. Since its maximum production level in 2004, Cantarell has experienced a cumulative decline of 51.3 % (1.134 mm barrels), while the country's total production has dropped 19 %.
He added that the projects aimed at the management and improved recovery of hydrocarbons in the field are intensive in their capital requirements and represent an increase in oil extraction costs. Those costs are now $ 4.60 per barrel, but they will exceed $ 10 by the end of this administration.

According to Pemex, Cantarell represented 36.7 % of total oil production during the 1980s, 40.8 % in the 1990s, and 56.8 % between 2000 and 2007. In December 2003, the oilfield reached its production peak, averaging 2.21 mm barrels. That same month, the country's total production reached its highest level in history, 3.454 mm bpd of hydrocarbons. Production currently totals just 2.85 mm bpd.
In annualized figures, the giant oilfield contributed 779.8 mm barrels in 2004 and 546.5 mm barrels in 2007.

For his part, President of the Republic Felipe Calderon inaugurated the works at the storage and liquefied natural gas regasification terminal in Manzanillo, Colima.
That project will allow the handling of as much as 500 mm cf of liquefied natural gas per day.