Analysts expected a drop of at least 50,000 barrels per day, but the figures from Pemex and the regulator show a less pronounced decrease. A source inside the oil company explained that The administration of the state company opted to increase the extraction of crude oil from other fields to make up for the losses.
In its last conference call with analysts, Pemex management said that 98% of oil production had recovered by the end of July. The first day after the incident, the state company had reported a loss of up to 700,000 barrels that was recovered in the following days. Internal Pemex reports indicated a drop of just under 450,000 barrels on the day of the accident, which occurred in the early hours of July 7, focused on the Ku Maloob Zaap asset, which borders Cantarell to the northwest.
Now, in a monthly count, the regulator’s numbers indicate uA significant drop in Ku Maloob Zaap –Pemex’s largest producing asset–, to the point of registering the lowest production since at least 2010. The three fields produced 495,000 barrels per day in July, a monthly decrease of 5% or just over 23,000 barrels per day. The drop was mainly in the Zaap field, which lost about 20,000 barrels a day of production.
The asset was already registering a streak of continuous declines in crude oil extraction, but this latest number shows an even more notable decrease that could be due, in part, to the closure of facilities related to the field to prevent the fire from spreading.
The regulator’s report also reports a significant drop in the production of the seven fields that make up the Cantarell asset. The number of barrels extracted from Cantarell decreased by 27% –equivalent to around 19,000 barrels of oil–, mainly in fields like Akal and Chac.
The analysts interviewed agree that the fire last July did change Pemex’s production dynamics in the Ku Maloob Zaap and Cantarell assets, but that the drop cannot be entirely attributed to the fire last July. Especially in the first case, where the fields have shown a continuous decline in recent years.