Pemex reports third straight quarterly profit, but output continues to fall

July 31, 2017
Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) posted a second-quarter profit of $1.8 billion, representing the third consecutive quarter in which the state-owned firm has recorded a profit.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) posted a second-quarter profit of $1.8 billion, representing the third consecutive quarter in which the state-owned firm has recorded a profit.

Pemex attributes the result to policies established by current management to improve the firm’s efficiency and profitability following Mexican energy reform (OGJ Online, May 4, 2017).

However, the firm’s crude output during the second quarter averaged 2.01 million b/d, down 7.5% from second-quarter 2016.

The decline included a 21% year-over-year decrease in extra-light crude production due to natural declines as well as an increase in the fractional water flow of wells in the Samaria-Luna, Bellota-Jujo, and Litoral de Tabasco business units.

Production of light crude fell 10.1% year-over-year primarily due to declines at Chuhuk, Ixtal, Chuc, and Kuil fields in the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc business unit of the Southwestern Marine region as well as at Tsimin in the Litoral de Tabasco business unit and Artesa in Macuspana-Muspac, both in the South region.

Pemex separately reported last week that it’s carrying out scheduled maintenance on the Yuum K’ak’naab floating production, storage, and offloading vessel, also known as Senor del Mar, which is located at Ku-Maloob-Zaap oil field in the Bay of Campeche, northwest of the Cantarell field.

Maintenance is scheduled to end Aug. 4. Pemex expects output from the field will be reduced by 90,000 bbl of crude and 20 MMcfd of gas during the work. The impact is accounted for in Pemex’s expected yearly production averages.

Gas production for the quarter was 4.336 bcfd, down 12% year-over-year.

That included a 9% year-over-year decrease in associated gas production primarily due to the natural decline in crude production and an increase in the fractional water flow of wells in the Abkatun-Pol-Chuc, Litoral de Tabasco, Samaria-Luna, Macuspana-Muspac, and Bellota-Jujo business units.

Production of nonassociated gas fell 21.5% year-over-year during the quarter mainly due to natural production declines at the Veracruz and Burgos business units in the Northern region.