Mexico says could pump extra 100,000 bpd if needed

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.19.03, 4:59 PM ET

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico, despite being tightly stretched in its crude production capacity, could supply world markets with an extra 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil in the event of a war against Iraq, Mexico's top energy official said on Wednesday. "If the world requires more oil Mexico could offer perhaps 100,000 barrels (a day) more," Energy Minister Ernesto Martens told reporters in Monterrey during a visit to inaugurate a power plant. Non-OPEC Mexico last month announced it would raise its export platform to 1.88 million bpd as of Feb. 1 as part of a deal with the OPEC cartel to cover the shortfall from a Venezuelan strike and in a bid to cool sizzling oil prices amid the threat of a U.S. attack on Iraq. For January, Mexico increased exports to 1.76 million bpd from the 1.66 million bpd ceiling maintained through most of last year. In December Mexico produced an average of 3.269 million bpd, of which it exported 1.690 million bpd on average. Officials at state oil monopoly Pemex have said Mexico is pretty much at its production and export capacity limit. Pemex is targeting average crude oil output of 3.5 million bpd by the end of 2003. Mexico is one of the top four suppliers to the United States, along with Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Canada. Concerns over supply disruptions resulting from a war come as Venezuela struggles to return exports to normal after a crippling strike and Nigerian oil workers stage a walk-out although supplies have remained normal so far. On the domestic front, Martens played down fears of a natural gas crisis, fanned by comments from Pemex head Raul Munoz last week saying the nation faced a major shortage of the fuel. "There is no problem of gas supply," said Martens. "I have to say that unless an emergency crops up, which is as yet unknown, Mexico has its supply assured of fuel in its different forms that will be required in the next months." Munoz said Mexico would need to find an extra 100,000 cubic feet per day from somewhere, even if it almost doubled natural gas imports to 1.1 billion cubic feet per day, which he said was pushing the nation's import capacity to the maximum.