MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fox announces huge oil discovery in Gulf of Mexico

Mexican president Vicente Fox announced the discovery of new oil reserves off Veracruz which could have ten billion barrels of crude, thus increasing the country's reserves by 10%.

Fox made the announcement during a visit to the Noxal 1 oil rig 100 kilometres from the port of Coatzacoalcos in the Gulf of Mexico. The new reserves could be even bigger than the country's largest oil field of Cantarell. The oil is in 930 metres of water and a further 4,000 metres underground.

"With Noxal we will begin a new era of oil exploration in our country", said President Fox who insisted on the commitment of his administration in exploration investment which will enable Mexico to maintain its current output in the future.

Luis Ramirez Corzo, Pemex CEO said that Noxal 1 is one of four deep drilled wells that the government is undertaking with the purpose of increasing reserves and addressing the decline of Cantarell.

"If we compare these potential reserves of 10 billion barrels with the annual production of 1.6 billion barrels, it gives us an idea of the strategic importance", said Ramirez Corzo.

With at least 3.4m barrels per day, Mexico, a non OPEC member, is Latin America's largest crude producer ahead of Venezuela and Brazil, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The oil industry provides one third of the Mexican state income and over half the crude extracted is exported, mainly to the United States.