Mexico’s Pemex oil output rises 3% in 2021, misses target

MEXICO CITY — Output of crude oil and condensates at Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) rose nearly 3% last year, official data showed, narrowly missing the Mexican state oil company’s target.

Pemex has struggled to rev up production in a meaningful way after years of declining output.

The company on Thursday night reported non-partner output of 1.736 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2021 versus an average 1.686 million bpd in 2020. Crude-only output rose to 1.67 million bpd compared, up 1.8% from 1.64 million bpd the previous year.

The 2021 figures were slightly below the 1.77 million bpd target announced by the company towards the end of the year.

Since peaking at 3.4 million bpd in 2004, the firm’s crude output has steadily declined as its top-producing fields in the shallow waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico have aged, and new ones to replace them have not been developed.

Pemex also reported that oil exports averaged 1.018 million bpd last year, down from 1.12 million bpd the previous year. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has promised to drastically reduce crude exports and to end them by next year in order to process the crude domestically and expand fuel production.

Pemex data showed crude refining rose to 711,612 bpd last year, up from an average of 590,631 bpd in 2020.

However, that processing remains well below the 1.5 million bpd combined capacity of Pemex’s six refineries and far short of the one million bpd promised by the government. (Reporting by Ana Isabel Martínez Editing by Drazen Jorgic and Marguerita Choy)