Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's president, faces an uphill battle in meeting production targets set in 2018
Letter from South America: Mexico plays catch-up
The country’s upstream strategy seems at odds with reality and will require an about-turn if there is any hope of meeting its production targets
Mexico is having an existential moment as an oil-producing nation. In 2018, President Andres Lopez Obrador announced an ambitious goal to boost oil production to 2.4mn bl/d and gas output to 6.6bn ft³/d (187mn m³/d) by 2024. This led to the identification of around 20 small and medium-size “priority fields” operated by NOC Pemex to help inject additional supply. But this campaign has suffered setbacks, with field development plans running behind schedule and volumes not deemed large enough to sustain output for long. Mexico’s oil production has continued to decline over the past six years, dropping from 2.52mn bl/d in 2013 to 1.68mn bl/d in 2019. And the country has only maintained similar l
Also in this section
10 March 2026
By shutting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has cut exports of distillate-rich Middle Eastern crude, jet fuel and diesel, and is holding the energy market hostage
10 March 2026
Eni’s director for global gas and LNG portfolio, Cristian Signoretto, discusses how demand will respond to rising LNG supply, and how the company is expanding its own gas and LNG operations through disciplined, capital-efficient investments
9 March 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis sees increases in output from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan among others before region’s murky descent
9 March 2026
Energy sanctions are becoming an increasingly prominent tool of US foreign policy, with the country’s growth in oil and gas production allowing it to impose pressure on rivals without jeopardising its own energy security or that of its allies, argues Matthew McManus, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics
