Mexico's proven hydrocarbon reserves increased by 2.6pc to 8.4bn bl of oil equivalent (boe) as of 1 January 2024, as increases in natural gas reserves balanced out declines in crude reserves, according to oil regulator CNH.
The increase in proven hydrocarbon reserves was mainly driven by the addition of 508mn boe following revisions of previously certified fields, CNH said today.
An additional 630,000 boe of proven hydrocarbon reserves were added after approval of a production plan for the deepwater Trion field being developed by state-owned Pemex and Australia-based Woodside Energy. Another 140,000 boe was incorporated from revisions made to Pemex's onshore Ixachi field. Proven reserves for Pemex's highest-producing gas field Quesqui decreased by 114,000 boe.
Proven crude reserves decreased by 2.9pc to 5.98bn bl in January 2024 from a year earlier. Meanwhile, proven gas reserves increased by 12pc to 12.3 Tcf, according to CNH.
Mexico's proven, probable and possible (3P) reserves were 23.1bn boe as of January 2024, flat against the previous year, while 3P crude reserves decreased by 6.4pc to 16.4bn bl and 3P gas reserves increased by 10.4pc to 31.6 Tcf.
Commissioners appointed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pointed out the sharp declines in crude reserves under the previous administration but did not explain why Pemex has failed to increase its crude reserves over the past six years.
Meanwhile, Hector Moreira, the only commissioner not appointed by the current president, noted Mexico's heavy reliance on a handful of fields and questioned the significant decline in restitution rate by discovery.
With just 11 discoveries confirmed over the year, the restitution rate by discovery declined to 45.4pc from 137pc in the prior year. The integral reserves restitution rate — reserves added through discoveries, delimitation, production and revisions — was 106.8pc, mainly because of accounting rules that allowed for incorporation of Trion reserves following approval of its production plan.
Pemex accounts for 86.6pc of 3P hydrocarbon reserves, while operators that won exploration and production contracts following the 2014 energy reform that dismantled Pemex's monopoly account for 13.4pc. Fieldwood Energy's shallow-water Ichalkil field accounts for the highest proportion of non-Pemex reserves at 4.2pc, while Pemex's Ixachi field has the highest single percentage of reserves at 9pc.
Mexico's southeast marine basin, home to Pemex's largest fields including Ku-Maloob-Zaap and Akal, accounts for 51pc of all 3P reserves.
But the report noted that 45.3pc, or 220, of the 486 fields with certified reserves are in decline.
