Mexico’s national oil company Pemex has discovered a large onshore oil field in the south-eastern state of Tabasco, CEO Octavio Romero announced on Thursday.
The reservoir is in the Dzimpona 1 exploratory well and has an estimated initial oil volume of 500 million to 600 million barrels, Romero said at the site with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
It’s the third “giant field” that has been discovered since Lopez Obrador took office in December 2018, promising to restore “national energy sovereignty.”
However, experts have warned that the fields’ potential has yet to be validated. “There is little information on their development and, so far, none provide significant production,” industry analyst David Shields told the BNamericas news website.
Lopez Obrador’s energy policy has generated controversy – and many lawsuits, as it prioritizes state-owned companies over private operators and clean energy.
“We are rescuing Pemex and we are rescuing the nation,” Lopez Obrador said Thursday, which also marks 83 years since the nationalization of oil supplies in 1938.
Romero said that Mexico’s oil production rose to 1.75 million barrels per day in 2020 after years of steady decline, despite the pandemic and cuts ordered by the oil cartel OPEC.
Last year, Mexico produced 1.7 million barrels per day. Romero estimated that production would be close to 2 million barrels per day in 2021.