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Mexico expects to hold talks with the incoming Obama administration concerning the "fair" development of oil fields that sit on both sides of the maritime border, Energy Minister Georgina Kessel said Wednesday. "We expect that, as soon as officials from the new administration are in office, these conversations will advance," Kessel told lawmakers at a hearing. She said Mexico has presented a formal proposal to negotiate "efficient and fair development of these types of reservoirs." State-run Petroleos Mexicanos thinks at least two deepwater oil fields stretch from the U.S. into Mexico. ... If production starts in the U.S. first, oil...

The Mexican government has unveiled emergency measures to protect its economy from the global financial crisis and US recession. President Felipe Calderon said Mexico was facing a period of great difficulty and rising unemployment. He promised nearly $150m (£100m) to struggling industries in a bid to save hundreds of thousands of jobs. The measure is part of a 25-point plan that includes freezing petrol prices and increasing unemployment benefits. Mexico sends 80% of its exports to the US and also depends heavily on remittances from Mexican workers in the US so has been hit by the downturn in its neighbour's...

Oil firms from offshore Louisiana to Middle Eastern deserts are cutting back during the price collapse, but oil-hungry Mexico is spending as if the boom is just starting. In Mexico, oil exports will run out in less than seven years at current decline rates, and the urgency to reverse the sharp fall has created a flurry of activity in Mexico's oil patch. If Mexico manages to buck the low-investment trend hitting the global oil industry, output will stabilize or at least fall at a slower rate over the next few years. This would guarantee fiscal revenue at home and a...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico said Wednesday that rising domestic consumption will cut the country's oil exports almost 40 percent by 2017, although the country hopes to increase crude production to just over 3 million barrels per day by that time.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — America's third-largest oil supplier has exported 17 percent less crude this year.Mexico's state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos company says daily production through October averaged 2.8 million barrels, down nearly 10 percent from the same period last year.  Pemex says production has dropped by a third this year at Mexico's main Cantarell oil field.  An energy reform package approved by Mexico's Congress last month aims to reverse declining production by giving Pemex more leeway to hire private companies and devote more revenue to explore for oil.

NEW YORK -- Mexico, the world's sixth-largest oil producer, hedged almost all of next year's oil exports at prices ranging from $70 to $100 at a cost of about $1.5 billion through derivatives contracts, the Financial Times reported on its front page Tuesday, citing bankers familiar with the deal.

The worldwide economic slump is causing more Mexicans to consider allowing private investment in Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., said Tuesday. “I think that we do see the beginnings of a thaw in the way Mexicans of different political persuasions understand how reforming the energy sector in Mexico is going to be critical, not only in terms of what has happened these past two months in the world economy, but our ability to continue growing,” said Sarukhan, during a visit with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board. “I think that the global slowdown has forced...

Mexico's energy reform just got a shot in the arm. The financial crisis and tanking oil prices puts a premium on private capital to help shore up the struggling industry, dampening a nationalist backlash. But oil firms are unsure if the reform, which was watered down earlier this year following heavy attacks from left-wing politicians, will offer enough to deploy capital south of the U.S. border. The risks are high for both Mexico and the U.S. Mexico will be importing crude within seven years unless it finds and develops new pools of oil fast. This would undermine state revenue and...

Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos has restored 250,000 barrels a day of crude that it was forced to shut in on Sept. 23 because storm-battered U.S. refineries had to cancel crude shipments, Pemex said Thursday. The export problems saturated Pemex's storage facilities, forcing the company to curb production. Pemex said a total of 1.94 million barrels of Maya crude oil were shut in during the period.

Mexico's state oil company says it is temporarily reducing oil production because U.S. refineries damaged by Hurricane Ike have canceled shipment orders. Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, says it has lowered its daily output by 250,000 barrels a day. But the company said this week that it expects production to be back to normal by week's end. Pemex produced an average of 2.75 million barrels a day in August, the latest available output figure. Hurricane Ike shut down or reduced work at more than a dozen refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Seven of those refineries process crude oil from...

Mexican crude production slid to 2.76 million barrels a day in August owing to a steady decline in overall production and temporary production snags. August production was down from 2.78 million barrels a day in July and 2.84 million barrels a day in August, 2007, Pemex reported on Monday. ...pipeline repairs and other operational snags hurt overall production in August, and that output should rise in September.

MINATITLAN, Mexico _ Pungent smoke billows from aging petrochemical plants here. Foul-smelling bluish water gathers in pools outside the walls. Fading paint announces the creaky Lazaro Cardenas refinery, a perfect metaphor for one of the world's biggest and most antiquated state oil companies. Petroleos Mexicanos employs more than 147,000 people and has long operated as a state within a state, with its own hospitals, pensions and integrated business operations. snip----Workers warn that they'll fight downsizing. "The energy reform should not harm the (labor) agreements. If it does, it won't fly," warned Jose Manuel Sanchez Urrita, a 24-year veteran of the...

A bitter debate on how to rescue Mexico's troubled state-owned oil company went directly to the people Sunday as residents of the capital and nine states voted in a nonbinding referendum on President Felipe Calderon's plan to open some portions of the petroleum industry to outsiders. The vote, organized by the opposition Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, has no official bearing on energy legislation making its way through Congress. But opponents of Calderon's reforms hope a decisive "no" vote will force legislators to back off. The balloting was the first of three so-called Citizen Consultation referendums over the next month...

As if the constant flow of illegal aliens and drugs from Mexico were not already a huge problem for the United States, it is about to get worse. When Business Week took notice of Mexico's dwindling oil reserves and failed national oil company, Pemex, in its May 5th edition, it signaled a problem whose significance is as great as the one involving an invading population. "A Slippery Moment for Mexican Oil" was the title, followed by "Output is tanking, but there's fierce opposition to a plan that could reward Big Oil for helping find new reserves." You have to read...

Mexico's April oil output slid to the lowest level since October 1999, underscoring the inability of state-run Petroleos Mexicanos to reverse an output decline that began in 2004. April output was 2.77 million barrels a day, compared with 2.85 million barrels a day

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico's state-run oil company said Monday that oil production fell 7.8 percent to 2.91 million barrels a day in the first quarter as current reserves dwindle. Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has struggled with falling reserves, especially at its main Cantarell oil field, and lacks the money and expertise to launch new drilling projects. Pemex only has enough proven oil reserves to last nine years at current production rates. President Felipe Calderon this month proposed an energy reform that would allow more private and foreign investment to jump-start new projects, but opponents argue the bill is a...

MEXICO CITY - A political row in Mexico over an oil reform plan intensified at the weekend as a TV ad compared a firebrand leftist leading a siege of Congress to 20th century dictators Hitler and Mussolini. Funded by a Mexican businessman angry at a 10-day blockade of Congress by opposition left-wing lawmakers, the television ad says the antics of protest leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador are endangering democracy in Mexico. Leftists seized Congress podiums on April 10 to block a government proposal to lower barriers to private investment in the oil sector, controlled by the state since 1938. "Who...

MONTERREY, Mexico — For a voting bloc that doesn't control Congress, this nation's main leftist party is doing a good job of running the show. More than a week has passed since Democratic Revolution Party lawmakers draped a huge banner over the dais in the lower house announcing it was "CLOSED," like a construction site without a permit. On Thursday, they chained shut the chamber's doors and their allies in the streets forced senators, also evicted from their chamber, to cut short an attempt to hold a session elsewhere in Mexico City. Lawmakers eventually found alternative locations, reached a quorum...

Mexico's leader sees potential in progress of Petrobras Guillermo Najera, a 42-year-old machine operator at Mexican state-controlled oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, gets paid to do nothing all day. Pemex management can't fire the union worker or transfer him from the ammonia plant in Ciudad Camargo, where he still shows up for work even though the plant stopped production in 2002. "We don't have anything else to do except keep our areas clean," Najera says as he and dozens of other idle workers enter the gates of the plant for the 7 a.m. shift. "I want to go back to work."...

With oil prices at dizzying heights, the world could use as much oil as possible. Don't count on Mexico to help. Mexico's oil output is falling, and the country could cease to be a major oil exporter in a few years. That's bad news for the world -- and for the U.S. in particular. Mexico is one of its top-three sources of foreign oil. If Mexico can't turn things around, U.S. dependence on Middle East oil will grow. Mexican President Felipe Calderón is frantically trying to strike a deal to allow private oil companies to work with state monopoly Petróleos...