There is an asset of the total Pemex production that contributes about 40% of the oil reported by the state company: Ku Maloob Zaap. But this has already entered a phase of accelerated decline and the problem is that there is no new field that can replace it.
The decline phase of this deposit in the Campeche Sound (made up of three fields, Ku, Maloob and Zaap) began in 2013, according to a statement from the then federal government, but has accelerated in recent months.
The state-owned Pemex has already recognized in its financial reports that the main cause of the constant decrease in its production or the lack of an increase is largely due to the decline of the deposit.
And the company has increased its financial commitment to this asset. In its budget this year, it has granted 51,363 million pesos for exploration and production work, its third highest budget in the last three years and with which it seeks to reverse the natural decline of the fields and maintain production. as the fall progresses, the cost of extraction per barrel increases.
But the situation is already practically imminent. All three fields have reached their peak of production: Ku in 2009, Maloob – the one that contributes the most crude – in 2018 and Zaap in 2017.
Pemex’s alternatives should focus on new fields that can supply the field’s production. But so far none of the new ones announced by the oil company have a potential similar to that of Campeche.
Dzimpona, the last field announced by Pemex, will reach 138,000 barrels a day at its peak of production and Ixachi, one of the great promises of the six-year term, will reach 82,000 barrels a day at its peak.
In perspective, Ku Maloob Zaap reached its peak production at 854,000 barrels a day in 2013, and the asset decline would complicate the presidential crude production targets, which have been continuously adjusted downward and now aim at 2 million barrels a year. end of the six-year term.
The field is the second most important asset in the history of the production of the state-owned Pemex, only after Cantarell, the mythical field that came to contribute up to 2 million barrels a day and that led the oil company to a production boom.
The production history of Ku Maloob Zaap will still continue in the next few years, but with a figure less than 500,000 barrels from 2026 and will stop adding oil in 2050, according to information from consultants.
