Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mexico's Oil Bonanza Starts To Dry Up.
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 6-30-06 | Robert Collier

Posted on 07/02/2006 1:02:47 AM PDT by txdoda

(06-30) 04:00 PDT Cardenas, Mexico -- Gonzalo Rodriguez has an unenviable task as the boss of a major oil field -- ripping out a large part of the pumping and compressing machinery that collects the output from scores of wells.

"Unfortunately, we don't need this capacity anymore," he said. "This isn't like the old days, and they aren't coming back."

Like much of Mexico's giant oil production apparatus, this area, known as the Bellota oil field, is in an apparently unstoppable decline. At current extraction rates, the nation has only 10 years of proven oil reserves remaining. And as Mexico prepares to vote in Sunday's presidential election, the leading candidates disagree bitterly about what, if anything, can be done to halt the impending collapse of the industry that forms the backbone of the national economy.

Left-of-center candidate Andres Lopez Obrador wants to de-emphasize production of crude oil and focus instead on refined products such as gasoline and plastics, while his main challenger, conservative Felipe Calderon, proposes opening the industry to foreign oil corporations to help increase crude exports.

Because Mexico is the second-largest source of U.S. oil imports, the outcome of this struggle will have a huge effect on U.S. energy security in the coming decades. Oil income accounts for more than 40 percent of the Mexican federal government's annual revenues, so the decline of oil output could leave the country's next president with a nightmarish budget crisis.

Oil industry experts say that whoever wins Sunday's election will be forced to play an increasingly weak hand of economic cards........

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: Arizona; US: California; US: New Mexico; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: closetheborders; energy; illegalimmigration; mexicanelections; mexico; oilproduction
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last
Hmmmm......Long Read, but covers the apparently unstoppable decline in production of oil in Mexico, with comments from the leading candidates in today's presidental election..

(my comment)..BUILD THE WALL & BUILD IT FAST

1 posted on 07/02/2006 1:02:50 AM PDT by txdoda
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: txdoda

No prob. Mex. can drill off the coast of Fla./USA. Anyone but USA can, that is.


2 posted on 07/02/2006 1:10:21 AM PDT by Waco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: txdoda
Left-of-center candidate Andres Lopez Obrador wants to de-emphasize production of crude oil and focus instead on refined products such as gasoline and plastics, while his main challenger,

Well, I'll be dipped. Mexican moonbats! Sheesh! I'd be drilling gasoline wells if that could be done. Where does this nitwit think the gasoline, etc. come from?

conservative Felipe Calderon, proposes opening the industry to foreign oil corporations to help increase crude exports...

Well, at least someone down there 'gets it'.

3 posted on 07/02/2006 1:11:57 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
"No prob. Mex. can drill off the coast of Fla./USA. Anyone but USA can, that is."

However....they don't have the money nor technology to do it.

Pemex doesn't turn a profit.

4 posted on 07/02/2006 1:17:21 AM PDT by spokeshave (I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than drive over a bridge with Ted Kennedy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: txdoda
Situated in the hot, swampy lowlands of southeast Mexico's Tabasco state, the Bellota complex was built in 1992 and remains one of the country's most modern petroleum facilities. But daily output from surrounding fields has fallen to only 35,000 barrels of oil, about one-quarter of the average during the 1990s, said Rodriguez, the oil-field boss

There is a solution. Drill and develop other areas, and pipeline the crude to the refinery complexes.

101, really, but it requires major investment, and you can't do that if the government is siphoning off the money to buy votes.

5 posted on 07/02/2006 1:18:57 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Waco

No prob. Mex. can drill off the coast of Fla./USA. Anyone but USA can, that is.>>>>>>>


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1658689/posts

Maybe our "Stuck on Stupid Senate" will approve this now.....(in less than 6/7 hundred pages)


6 posted on 07/02/2006 1:21:50 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: txdoda

Not drilling the oil Americans would like to drill.


7 posted on 07/02/2006 1:21:52 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Paleo Conservative
Not drilling the oil Americans would like to drill.

LOL.....best 'quote' from the article...""Mexico must find its own solutions."

Too bad this guy wasn't running for president, down there.

8 posted on 07/02/2006 1:29:28 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
conservative Felipe Calderon, proposes opening the industry to foreign oil corporations to help increase crude exports...

Well, at least someone down there 'gets it'.

Fox has tried to 'open up" Pemex to foreign investors & the mex. congress wouldn't let him.

Should be interesting to see the outcome of the mex. congress. elections too.

9 posted on 07/02/2006 1:36:52 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
I was involved in the Mexican oil exploration.
Please see my thread "Looters of Mexico".
Money is in old pesos.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1299642/posts
10 posted on 07/02/2006 1:40:17 AM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran ("Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: txdoda; Smokin' Joe
conservative Felipe Calderon, proposes opening the industry to foreign oil corporations to help increase crude exports.

Easier said than done. It's harder than getting Congress to open up offshore exploration along the US coast. The Mexican constitution prohibits any foreign company from drilling or operating oil and gas wells in Mexico. They also prohibit any domestic competitor to the state monopoly Pemex. Unlike the US, the state owns all mineral rights. If you are unfortunate in having oil and gas under your land, that's tough. Pemex will damage your property to extract it without paying any royalties or damages.

11 posted on 07/02/2006 1:48:12 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
LOL......& from this article.

""Calderon wants to privatize Pemex, but that's just a recipe for more corruption," said Ricardo Decle, a petroleum engineer who was frog-marched off his workplace by soldiers in 2004 as part of a purge of about 50 dissenting technical staff and is now chief of a group of local Pemex retirees. "In Pemex, there is no transparency, nobody watches over the contracts. For starters, they ask for a 10 percent (bribe) off the top of the price. When anyone complains, they are repressed. This is the way business is done here."

The only chance I see to help America and Mexico is to seal the border, deport the people who are not here legaly. We also need to arm the Mexican people so they can have a chance against the looters with their armies.

I remeber reading you very good thread when you posted it.

I too, have always thought it should be up to the mexican people to clean up their own gov't.

12 posted on 07/02/2006 1:55:30 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Paleo Conservative; HuntsvilleTxVeteran; txdoda
I have to say that I like our system better, but then I am working on a wellsite right now. I get to FReep between describing samples and during connections.

The oil company setup is bad enough, corruption is a definite problem, and the looting of the oil company to subsidize social programs has its limits.

At some point you simply do not have the money to keep up with declining production. They are slowly killing the golden goose down there.

I hope more people are aware of this next time our Congress brings up "windfall profits" taxes, and keep that camel's nose out from under the tent.

13 posted on 07/02/2006 1:57:34 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Paleo Conservative
Easier said than done.

That's for sure.

The Mexican constitution prohibits any foreign company from drilling or operating oil and gas wells in Mexico.

Yep, & I don't really expect to see the mex. congress changing *that much* in these elections......Plus any mex. president will still have to be *controlled*.

14 posted on 07/02/2006 2:06:34 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: txdoda

Doesn't look good.


15 posted on 07/02/2006 2:06:48 AM PDT by hershey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe
They are slowly killing the golden goose down there.

yep, & I hate to say it, but I don't think we've *really* seen a 'run for the border', yet.

16 posted on 07/02/2006 2:12:51 AM PDT by txdoda (Voters to Gov't .......Re: post 9-11 Border Security....... ""The results are Unacceptable."")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

Major investment needed is right. And guess whose hand is heading for your wallet. Fox suggested the US 'invest in rebuilding Mexico's infrastructure' as a way of luring Mexicans to return home. (That's the carrot). Oil fields are included, along with roads, schools, hospitals, etc.. Like it or not, North American Union here we come.


17 posted on 07/02/2006 2:15:39 AM PDT by hershey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: txdoda

The Mexican people won't clean it up.

The average Mexican is as corrupt as their government.

Bribes are a way of life there and they're proud of it...


18 posted on 07/02/2006 2:24:22 AM PDT by DB (©)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: hershey; Smokin' Joe

If they sell us a large percentage of the oil rights in some areas, they'll get investment from us in energy infrastructure. When production declines so much that their budget situation becomes desperate, then Mexico will probably allow foreign investment in some oil fields. Those fields will quickly become the most efficient producers in Mexico. But no Americans want to invest in public works projects in Mexico because there's no payback for us. I doubt that Congress will ever vote for any significant foreign investment for Mexico.


19 posted on 07/02/2006 2:30:57 AM PDT by defenderSD (Just when you think it's never going to happen, that's when it happens.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: DB
"Bribes are a way of life there and they're proud of it..."

Ah yes, la mordida (the bite) in Mexico. It's also a way of life in India, from what I hear. I worked with a guy from India who said his father had to "bribe seven people" to get a telephone line installed. Now THAT's a culture of bribery. People from India are generally very impressed with the US when they visit here.

20 posted on 07/02/2006 2:34:08 AM PDT by defenderSD (Just when you think it's never going to happen, that's when it happens.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson