Cantarell Field at 862,060 barrels per day

NOTE: See our postings of March 19, June 21 and August 31, 2008.

Cantarell Field,which first produced in 1979, is the second or third largest oil field in the world.
Cantarell's production rate was 2,100,000 barrels per day in 2004.
In 2005, production began to decline, for the first time.
As shown in the title, production has declined from 2,100,000 barrels per day to 862,060 barrels per day, in just 4 years.

This is why we call Cantarell Field the "Peak Oil Poster Child".

Pemex Oil Production Drops 6.5% on Cantarell Field (Update2)
By Andres R. Martinez

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, said crude oil output fell 6.5 percent in November from the year-earlier period as production at its Cantarell field declined at a faster-than-expected rate.

Production dropped to 2.711 million barrels a day, from 2.901 million barrels a day a year earlier, the company known as Pemex said today on its Web site. In an e-mail, Pemex cited Cantarell, its largest field, as the reason for the drop.

The Mexico City-based company in October lowered its 2008 output forecast by 3.6 percent to as low as 2.7 million barrels a day after interruptions from hurricanes. It was the third time Pemex reduced its forecast this year, after a faster-than- expected decline at Cantarell, the world’s third-largest field.

Cantarell’s output fell 33 percent, more than twice as fast as government estimates, to 862,060 barrels a day from a year earlier. Declining pressure at Cantarell has made it more expensive and harder to continue pumping oil from the offshore deposit.

Cantarell accounted for 32 percent of Pemex’s total output, half of the 65 percent it once represented at its peak.

Oil exports fell 20 percent to 1.511 million barrels a day, according to a chart on Pemex’s Web site.

Mexico is the third-largest supplier of crude to the U.S. Canada and Saudi Arabia are the first- and second-largest suppliers.

Crude oil for February delivery fell $2.45, or 5.8 percent, to settle at $39.91 a barrel at 2:43 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has tumbled about 72 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11.

Natural-gas production jumped 19 percent to a record high of 7.239 billion cubic feet a day in November.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City at amartinez28@bloomberg.net