PEMEX - SpanishPod101

PEMEX

Learn about PEMEX in Mexico

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Lesson Transcript

Culture File: Mexico - Lesson 17: PEMEX

Hello, and welcome to the Culture File: Mexico series at SpanishPod101.com. In this series, we’re exploring essential cultural information about Mexico, Mexican Culture, and Mexican People. In this lesson, we will talk about Mexican economic activities. I’m Michael, and you're listening to Season 1, Lesson 17 - PEMEX

In talking about the economy in Mexico, we first have to talk about the Mexican Petroleums company, in Spanish "Petróleos Mexicanos", better known as PEMEX. PEMEX is the largest Mexican company and biggest taxpayer in the country, and is also one of the biggest industries in Latin America. According to National data, the company’s business alone makes up 10% of the gross domestic product and represents over 30% of the federal income in Mexico.

PEMEX is one of the few petroleum industries around the world that is involved in the petroleum process from start to finish, including exploration, or "exploración", extraction, or "extracción", refining, or "refinación", distribution, or "distribución", and sales, or "ventas".

Just like big oil companies in the rest of the world, this Mexican company has recently invested heavily in deepwater drilling, or "extracción en aguas profundas", in the Gulf of Mexico. Important oil wells have been established in southeast Mexico along the coasts of Mexican states Veracruz and Campeche.

In recent years, important petroleum reservoirs have been discovered, including Trión-1, Supremus-1 and Kunah-1, which have enabled the extraction of 960 million barrels of crude oil. These discoveries will allow and ensure an increasing production of oil in Mexico in the long term.

Another important natural resource found in Mexico’s territory is shale gas, in Spanish "gas de lutita", made accessible through hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies. One of the main basins of this resource is in the state of Veracruz, in a place called Tampico-Misantla, with a potential of 681 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

According to the United States Energy Information Administration, Mexico is one of the world’s top 6 petroleum producers. In the area of exploration, Mexico falls in 12th place after Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

In 2013, with the aim of increasing this economical sector’s competitivity, the Mexican government proposed an important Energy Reform Bill that, in short, would allow private companies and investors to participate in the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons.