Mexico's Pemex embarks on $500 million shale oil program

摘要

Mexican state oil company Pemex has embarked on a $500 million pilot program this year to gauge the extent of liquids from shale it can produce on its side of the US-Mexican border, Pemex E&P director Carlos Morales Gil said in May. Morales Gil said the company had begun testing the potential of shale from natural gas in 2009-2010, but switched its focus to liquids because of low gas prices, which briefly dropped below $2/Mcf last year. Prices have since rebounded above $4/Mcf, but Morales said the company will continue the search for oil and liquids. Pemex shale oil test wells have been drilled in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas that borders Texas, and also further south, into the eastern state of Veracruz.