Petroleos Mexicanos said it lost production capacity of about 700,000 barrels of oil, more than a third of its daily output, after a massive rig explosion on Friday that left at least two people dead.
The company is working to restore production, Pemex Chief Executive Octavio Romero confirmed in a video late Saturday, adding that production has already recovered to 600,000 barrels.
Bloomberg News previously reported that about 450,000 barrels of oil and more than 560 million cubic feet of gas, about 11 percent of Pemex’s total natural gas production, were lost Saturday at the producing asset alone Ku Maloob Zaap as the company shut down production as a contingency. measure, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
While the one-day loss is significant, it is likely to be temporary as Pemex resumes some of its operations after the deadly fire, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public A Pemex representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the loss or its current production capacity outside normal office hours.
Two people died and one remains missing after Pemex reported an explosion at the Nohoch Alfa gas processing center in the Cantarell field early Friday. Romero said late Friday that the platform’s connecting module was destroyed, but that firefighting efforts helped prevent the fire from spreading to other modules.
Pemex’s head of exploration and production, Angel Cid, said the explosion “substantially affected” the rig’s production.
Mexico’s Cotemar, which provides oilfield services, confirmed in a statement on Saturday that the two workers who died in the explosion were its employees and that another is still missing.
Pemex has come under scrutiny from analysts for its environmental and safety record after frequent accidents and explosions at its facilities. The company is carrying $107.4 billion in debt, the most of any major oil company, and is struggling with a liquidity crunch.
— With the assistance of Alex Vasquez.
