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Mexico makes 'biggest' oil find in 15 years

mexico city - National oil company Pemex made the discovery by drilling its onshore well

Mexico's national oil company Pemex has made its biggest onshore oil discovery in 15 years with a find in the eastern state of Veracruz, President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Friday.

Pena Nieto said Pemex made the discovery by drilling its onshore Ixachi well, near the municipality of Cosamaloapan, and that the overall field is believed to hold some 350 million barrels of proven, probable and possible reserves.

Pena Nieto, who pushed through Congress a sweeping energy reform in 2013 that ended Pemex' decades-long monopoly, made the announcement at the company's Tula refinery.

He was flanked by his energy minister, Pemex' chief executive and other government and union officials.

While crude export revenue once contributed as much as 40 per cent of government revenue, that figure has dropped to under 20 per cent as oil prices have slumped in recent years.

The onshore field's original volume in place is estimated at 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

The light oil field should begin producing by the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019, Pemex CEO Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya said.

The area near the discovery is located where infrastructure already exists which should allow for quicker development, Pemex said, adding that the find could double in size.

Gonzalez Anaya said the company has not decided whether it will develop the discovery by itself or with an equity partner, and he added that it is too soon to provide a production forecast or a spending plan for the field.

"We're just now announcing the field's discovery, and we still need to delimit it as well as establish a development plan," said Gonzalez Anaya. - Reuters