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 Mexico - A Failed Oil State

There is an awful lot of oil in Mexico to be discovered, but the difficulty is Mexico’s state oil monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), has trouble finding it! In 2004, Mexican oil production had peaked at 3,383,000 barrels per day (bpd), reports PEMEX. Since then Mexican oil production has shown a steady decline, so by April 2009 output had fallen to 2,642,000 bpd. Unfortunately, for PEMEX it has failed to find new significant replacement oil reserves to compensate.

The high price of oil

The surging price of oil appears to be at the root of all our economic woes, but there may be darker days ahead.In recent months, world oil prices have broken the $100 per barrel barrier for crude oil; it was only spring last year that the price of crude was around the $50 a barrel mark.

 Arctic oil: an environmental disaster waiting to happen?

US Geological Survey estimates suggest there could be between 44 to 157 billion barrels of oil and 299 to 1,547 trillion cubic feet of gas, mostly off the Arctic coastlines of Alaska and Russia, while Jean Laherrère, a French consultant petroleum geologist, forecasts that the Arctic could contain just 50 billion barrels of oil and 1,000 TCF of gas. This would suggest by using the latest drilling technology, perhaps only 25%-35% of Arctic oil and gas reserves is economically recoverable.

The world's deepest offshore oil rigs

Chevron's $500m Petronius platform is situated about 130 miles (208km) southeast of New Orleans. It is located in water depths of 1754ft (535m). The field, discovered in 1995, contains estimated recoverable reserves of 100 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Striking it lucky

There is a lot of oil in Brazil. This is all due to a string of spectacular successes Petrobras and its partners have had in the ultra-deep offshore waters of Brazil. The most interesting finds are located in the pre-salt Santos Basin exploration Block BM-S-11, some 250km (155.3 mi) due south of Rio de Janeiro, the home of samba and traffic jams.

Innovation offshore

Operating in the polar regions of the world poses incredible challenges for the offshore oil and gas sector. Thirty years ago, operating in such extreme weather conditions was considered almost impossible. In response to these challenges, the industry has become ever more innovative and increasingly automated, and operating in the world's polar seas is now more commonplace.

Investing in Indonesia's Petroleum Industry