The New York Times is reporting that declining production numbers at Mexico’s national oil company, PEMEX, threatens America’s energy and national security. Total output has dropped from just under 3.5 million barrels a day in 2004 to a projected 2.5 million barrels in 2010, and oil exports to the United States, now 1.1 million barrels a day, have fallen by nearly a third in the last six years. The situation in Mexico is so critical that the U.S. Department of Energy forecasts that the country will probably have to start importing oil by 2020:
“Output from Mexico’s giant Cantarell field, in shallow waters near the eastern shore, has plunged by 50 percent in recent years. Output at the country’s other large field is expected to begin falling in the next year or two.”
According to The Times, these decreased levels of production are going to force the U.S. to rely more and more on questionable sources of imported oil:
“Mexico is among the three leading foreign suppliers of oil to the United States, along with Canada and Saudi Arabia. Mexican barrels can be replaced, but at a cost. It means greater American dependence on unfriendly countries like Venezuela, unstable countries like Nigeria and Iraq, and on the oil sands of Canada, an environmentally destructive form of oil production.”
The end result is a dangerous situation according to one energy analyst. “It’s not just about energy security but national security, because our neighbor’s economic and political well-being is largely linked to its capacity to produce and export oil,” said Jeremy M. Martin, director of the energy program at the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, San Diego.
Read more HERE.