LNG

Mexico, a future LNG exporter to Asia with three plants being developed on the Pacific Coast, has revealed plans that are a hidden part of the future energy policies of many resource-rich nations that it will stop exporting oil in 2023 and keep the oil for itself to guarantee fuel supplies.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Mexican oil and gas company, said its natural gas production rose by almost 2 percent last month compared with the previous month as the nation aims for a medium-term reduction of imports from the US by pipeline and as LNG shipments.

Pemex said its February output of gas averaged 3.763 billion cubic feet per day, an increase from the January average of 3.696 Bcf per day.

Associated gas extracted from oil wells accounted for 73.9 percent of the natural gas total, up from 72.1 percent a year ago.

However, Pemex’s natural gas production in February was down 42 percent from the peak level of 6.516 Bcf per day reached in 2009.

Since 2009, demand has been steadily rising among power companies and industrial customers, making Mexico increasingly dependent on the US imports.

Mexico imported 5.129 Bcf per day of natural gas from the US in 2018, more than four times the 1.258 Bcf per day averaged in 2009.

The nation also receives an average of three US LNG shipments per month and is the largest recipient of US liquefied volumes after South Korea.

Pemex said its crude oil output rose in February to 1.707 million barrels per day from 1.623 million barrels per day in January.

Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero Oropeza said that the company had been tasked by the government with reversing the negative trend in exploration and production of previous years and was focusing on rescuing the country’s “oil and gas sovereignty”.

The CEO said he was now working on accelerating the development of 20 new fields in Pemex’s portfolio.

Romero Oropeza explained that of the 20 fields to be developed, 16 were in shallow waters offshore and four were onshore.

He added that the 16 offshore fields would lead to the construction of 13 production platforms and the installation of 14 pipelines with a total length of 175 kilometres.

The CEO stated that the four new onshore fields would also require a high work load, such as the construction of three new drilling platforms and the expansion of nine existing platforms.

The new fields include the natural gas-rich Ixachi onshore field in the southeast state of Veracruz.

Pemex said it expected Ixachi to eventually supply about 700 million cubic feet per day of natural gas and 80,000 barrels per day of condensate.

The Ixachi field would begin supplying gas to the Sistrangas national pipeline grid by the end of 2019 and would help to partially offset declines at mature Pemex fields.