
The Mexican petroleum industry is the stuff of legends. Let us consider two of our most famous ones.
Near a small town in northern Veracruz lies the Cerro Azul #4 Well (the municipality would later adopt its name from the well). It produced the astonishing amount of 260,858 barrels a day when it initially came in. Discovered in 1916, this prodigious well accumulated over 64 million barrels by 1922 and continues to produce small amounts of oil today.
Now we go off to the giant oil fields beneath the Gulf of Mexico, off Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz. The largest one by far — the Cantarell Field — is one of the five-largest oil fields ever found. At its peak, it supplied over 2 million barrels a day to Mexico. This level of production is larger than all but the world’s 10 principal oil-producing countries.
Indigenous peoples have used oil resources for centuries for sealing their canoes and for incense. The modern oil industry started when the first exploratory oil well was drilled in Mexico back in 1869 and by 1901, commercial production had begun.
Mexico Matters ….
Mexico is among the 15 largest global economies and is the second-largest trading partner of the US. It is a geographical and cultural bridge between North and South America. However, none of these facts will likely be surprising.
What is unexpected is the fact that Mexico is the ninth-largest consumer of natural gas. The country has abundant hydrocarbon resources. During the 1980s and 1990s, domestic natural gas production grew as consumption ramped up. The industry has invested heavily in developing natural gas resources, especially from the prolific Burgos Basin.