Spanish or Arabic..........

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-02 09:23am

http://www.el-universal.com.mx/pls/impr ... abla=miami

Large oil reserves found
BY NOÉ CRUZ SERRANO/EL UNIVERSAL
El Universal
Lunes 30 de agosto de 2004
Nuestro mundo, página 2

Three years of exploration has enabled Pemex to map oilfields that the state-owned oil monopoly believes will more than double the nation's known crude oil reserves.

Luis Ramírez Corzo, Pemex's director for exploration, told EL UNIVERSAL that on a "conservative" estimate, almost 54 billion barrels lie underneath the oilfields. That
would take Mexico's reserves to 102 billion barrels, more than the United Arab Emirates (which has reserves of 97.8 billion barrels), Kuwait (94 billion) and Iran (89.7
billion), and almost as much as Iraq (112.5 billion).

The official also said the discovery could enable Pemex to increase Mexico's oil production from the current level of 4 million barrels per day (bpd) to 7 million bpd.

Saudi Arabia currently produces 7.5 million bpd, while Russia's oil output is 7.4 million bpd.

Ramírez Corzo said the exploration, at an investment of US4.6 billion, led to the identification of seven separate blocks rich in oil and natural gas. The most promising
blocks are under water in the Gulf of Mexico, thought to contain around 45 billion barrels.

"That's the good news," Ramírez Corzo said. "The bad is that owing to the complexity of the technology needed to exploit the oilfields and the levels of investment
required, (Pemex) can't go it alone."

He said Pemex will prepare special "alliance contracts" to attract the involvement of multi-national corporations with capital to invest and the most up-to-date deep sea oil
extraction technology.

Similar "multiple service contracts," which Pemex has used to attract foreign capital to extract natural gas from the northern Burgos Basin, have met with legal challenges
by opposition lawmakers. Under Mexico's Constitution, exploration and exploitation of the nation's energy resources is the exclusive preserve of the state.

The contracts would maintain Mexican ownership of the oil while allowing the multi-nationals a return on their investment to extract the resources from under the sea,
Ramírez Corzo said.

J · Post by J » 2004-09-02 10:15am

Obviously the US must invade Mexico and secure their strategic oil reserves.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2004-09-02 11:03am

jmac wrote:Obviously the US must invade Mexico and secure their strategic oil reserves.

Wouldn't be the first time we've invaded that place. Maybe we won't do such a half-assed job this time and actually annex the whole place instead of just the top half...

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2004-09-02 11:48am

jmac wrote:Obviously the US must invade Mexico and secure their strategic oil reserves.

Considering the steady stream of Mexicans going north perhaps moving the border south and annexing a few more states would be more efficient in the long run...

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2004-09-02 12:08pm

Xenophobe3691 wrote:
jmac wrote:Obviously the US must invade Mexico and secure their strategic oil reserves.
Wouldn't be the first time we've invaded that place. Maybe we won't do such a half-assed job this time and actually annex the whole place instead of just the top half...

Well, during the 19th century, there were some expansionists that wanted the U.S. to extend down the entire Middle America. If they had known about the future importance of oil, who knows what had happened

?

Nah, bad joke.