Pemex 2007 Capex to Reach US $16 Billion

Mexican state oil company Pemex's planned capex for 2007 reaches US$16bn, company corporate finance director Esteban Levin Balcells said in a conference call highlighting third quarter results.

Of the total, US$12.3bn will go to E&P and the balance to downstream activities, Levin said. By comparison, Pemex aims to invest US$13bn this year, company CEO Luis Ramirez Corzo said in July.

Regarding 3Q06 financials, the executive said Pemex posted a 28.9bn-peso (US$2.67bn) net profit versus a 20.4bn-peso net loss in the year-ago period.

The company attributed the result to a drop in financing costs and an increase in "other revenues" due to the crediting of the special tax on production and services (IEPS) against other taxes and duties.

In the period, total sales rose 10.3% to 277bn pesos and Ebitda grew 16.8% to 216bn pesos.

Sales increased principally due to higher prices of crude and refined products, Levin said. The average Mexican crude basket price was US$58.09/b in the third quarter of this year versus US$49.54/b in July-September 2005.

In the first nine months of this year, Pemex's net profits reached 48.3bn pesos. Total sales were 800bn pesos and Ebitda closed at 613bn pesos. BNamericas calculated January-September results by combining figures from the first three quarters.

PRODUCTION

Liquid hydrocarbons output in 3Q06 dipped 0.3% to 3.7Mb/d compared to July-September 2005. Crude production was off 1% to 3.25Mb/d while output of natural gas liquids rose 7% to 451Mb/d.

Natural gas output in July-September rose 13% to 5.48Bf3/d (155Mm3/d) compared to the year-ago period and production of refined products edged up 1% to 1.54Mb/d. Petrochemicals output increased 8% 2.8Mt.

DRILLING

The number of exploratory wells drilled in the third quarter of this year jumped 73% to 19 from 3Q05, while the number of development wells drilled dropped 16% to 128.

Exploratory drilling increased due to higher activity in the Burgos, Campeche Poniente and Coatzacoalcos projects and development drilling fell due to lower activity in the Burgos and Veracruz projects.

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