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| Mexico |
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| PEMEX restores much of its oil production |
| By Mark Stevenson, AP November 23, 2007 01:01:00 AM |
| | Mexico's state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos said Wednesday it has restored all but about 300,000 barrels of oil production after storms in the Gulf of Mexico.
The company, known as Pemex, had suspended 1.1 million barrels of output on Tuesday after too much crude piled up at storage facilities and ships couldn't move it out due to port closures. However, the re-opening of at least one port late Tuesday allowed ships to begin clearing out the oil, and more will move out as the weather clears, Pemex director Jesus Reyes Heroles said at a news conference.
Carlos Morales, Pemex's director of production and exploration, said the company expected to reopen wells and push production back up to normal levels of about 1.7 million barrels for export and 3.1 million barrels over all by the end of day Wednesday.
The company also said that up to 450 barrels of oil per day continued to leak from an offshore oil platform damaged in an Oct. 23 collision in which at least 21 workers died, most after they tried to use enclosed lifeboats to flee the rig. Authorities were still searching for one missing worker.
While television images and photos have shown the lifeboats tore apart, apparently by rough waves, Reyes Heroles refused to speculate on the causes of the collision and ensuing deaths. Morales said the life boats had been certified as operational and seaworthy.
The company announced that an independent investigation will be carried out into last week's collision between a drilling rig and an oil platform, and that it will be headed by 1995 Nobel chemistry prize winner Mario Molina.
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