Mexico City — Italian oil company Ente Nationale Idrocarburi (ENI) has helped to boost private oil production in Mexico to a new record in September, when output totaled 113,000 barrels of crude per day, a growth of 6.6%, or 7,700 barrels per day, over the previous month.
The increase was 69% compared to the same month of 2021, according to the most recent data from the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).
ENI increased its production by 29%, or 6,000 barrels, per day in Block 7, which contains the Miztón, Amoca and Teocalli offshore fields, after more than a year in decline due to pressure problems in one of the fields and delays in the arrival of a vessel to stabilize production.
The then president of the CNH, Rogelio Hernández Cázares, had said ENI was beginning to damage the field due to the delay.
ENI, Hokchi Energy, Fieldwood Energy and Petrofac account for 80% of the private production of a total of 109 contracts tendered during the 2012-2018 term of former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
Private oil production represents 7% of the total in Mexico, with the remaining 93% by state-owned oil giant Pemex.
The companies operating oil blocks in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore areas of the country have a production target of 210,000 barrels per day for this year.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador set a target of 280,000 barrels per day by the end of his six-year term in 2024, and suspended further auctions of oil blocks upon taking office in 2018.
The head of the Mexican Association of Hydrocarbon Companies (Amexhi), Merlin Cochran, said in April 2022 that the association was working on new production targets following the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting delays, but as of October there had still not been any indication of new estimates or a date for them to be announced.
