Pemex Deepwater Gas Field May Begin Output in 2013

Petroleos Mexicanos, the third- biggest oil supplier to the U.S., may begin production by 2013 or 2014 at the natural-gas field Lakach in the Gulf of Mexico, Bloomberg reported. Production at Lakach, discovered last year in waters almost a kilometer deep, will take longer than at Pemex's shallow-water fields, which require two to three years before they deliver gas, said Vinicio Suro, managing director of planning and evaluation at Pemex's exploration and production unit, on a conference call.

Pemex also plans to increase drilling in Chicontepec, a field located across four southern states characterized by small pockets of oil that require thousands of wells to exploit. Last month, Pemex said it plans to increase the number of wells it drills there to 1,000 per year from about 200 annually. Source: Bloomberg