
Le pic d'exportation est imminent, et la décroissance qui suivra sera forte (-3% par an jusqu'en 2015, puis plus de 5% par an). Il sera temps pour l'Irak de monter en cadence

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ça vient d'EnergyBulletin que vous connaissez tousCantarell Peaks - Peak Oil is Now Official
Trevor Shaw, Raise the Hammer
A recent Kight Ridder article by Kevin Hall points out that world's number two oilfield, Mexico's supergiant Cantarell, has peaked.
Cantarell is second only to Saudia Arabia's Ghawar oilfield and has been pumping millions of barrels of light crude a day since 1976. According to Carlos Morales, production manager for Mexico's state owned oil company, Pemex, Cantarell's projected output will be 6 percent lower this year at 1.9 million barrels per day and down to 1.43 million barrels by 2008, the level of production in 2000.
A leaked internal memo from inside Pemex said water and gas were seeping into the massive offshore oil field. Cantarell is showing the signs of peaking.
Canterell's Output Levels Year Output
1994 1.0 mb/d
2000 1.5 mb/d
2004 2.13 mb/d (Peak)
2005 2.0 mb/d
2006 1.9 mb/d (projected)
2008 1.43 mb/d (projected)
The Cantarell field accounts for 60% of Mexico's total production. To make up the decline of Cantarell, Pemex is spending billions to develop new fields such as Chicontepec. This will prove difficult for a company that lost $3.75 billion in 2005, during a time of record high crude prices.
(18 March 2006)
Pemex Goes Deep
The last several weeks have seen some interesting news coming from south of the border in Mexico, so this week we will take a look at the developments there.
Major Discovery at Noxal Well Offshore Veracruz
Mexican President Vicente Fox announced the discovery of a potentially world-class oil discovery in the deep waters about 60 miles off the coast of Veracruz. The Noxal 1 well was drilled by the Diamond Offshore semisubmersible Ocean Worker, which went on location at the end of November 2005. The well was drilled in approximately 3,000 feet of water to a depth of over 13,000 feet. The Ocean Worker is still on location and is contracted to remain at Noxal until at least June.
This new field, Deep Coatzacoalcos, has been estimated to hold as much as 10 billion barrels of crude oil. As such, this new discovery could help to reinvigorate the Mexican oil industry, which is facing the inevitable decline of its main oil producer, the Cantarell oilfield, which accounts for almost 60% of the country's daily output of 3.3 million barrels.
The Noxal well is also important because it opens up a new oil exploration province for Mexico, which to date has focused primarily on shallow water drilling. Only within the last 3 years has Pemex contracted more than 4 semisubmerisble rigs, with a peak of 11 semis contracted during the first half of 2004. Meanwhile, the number of jackups employed by Pemex has ranged between 20 and 30 rigs over those same 3 years.
Investments Needed
Pemex has announced that it will spend US$37.5 billion over the next 20 years to develop the 18 billion barrel Chicontepec reservoir in southern Veracruz. The field currently produces only 26,000 bpd. but Pemex hopes to raise that to 1 million bpd within 8 to 10 years. This increase in production will serve to offset declines in the Cantarell production.
In addition to the investments planned for Chicontepec, Pemex CEO Luis Ramirez Corzo stated that the company needs to invest US$20 billion annually for the next 20 years in order to increase production and reduce dependence on imported natural gas. Over the last 5 years of President Fox's administration, Pemex has invested an average of about US$9.5 billion per year. So, the required investment levels represent more than a 100% increase over recent levels.
Thanks to changes in its tax regime, Pemex may be able to retain some of its earnings for further investment. Over the last 5 years, Pemex has carried a tax burden of 110% of its operating profits. As in 2005, when the company paid almost US$65 billion in taxes on US$50 billion in profits. Recent tax changes will keep Pemex from sinking under its own weight of debt, but more changes will almost certainly need to be made.
One area that has received some attention is allowing foreign oil companies to participate in deepwater oil projects. Considering the expense of the projects and Pemex's lack of experience in these depths, some view foreign involvement as essential in order to make projects like Deep Coatzacoalcos viable. In particular, the Center for Economic Studies of the Private Sector (CEESP) has voiced its opinion that Pemex will need to form JVs with foreign oil companies to take advantage of its deepwater discoveries. Even Pemex CEO Luis Ramirez Corzo has voiced concern about the company's inability to exploit these opportunities without outside investment and expertise.
Decline of Cantarell
In another recent announcement, Pemex expects that production from the Cantarell oilfield will decline by about 350,000 bpd during 2006. The field is currently producing between 1.9 and 2 million bpd, down from a high of over 2.2 million bpd in 2001. Since its start in 1979, the Cantarell field has produced about 11.5 billion barrels of its approximately 18 billion barrels of recoverable reserves.
Effects for the Offshore Rig Fleet
The addition of the deepwater prospects and the decline of shallow water fields will likely lead to a change in the composition of the Mexican offshore rig fleet over the next several years.
Currently, Pemex employs 7 semisubs with rated water depths ranging from 1,000 to 3,500 feet, along with a fleet of 27 jackups rigs. The semisubs in this market earn the lowest average day rates for rigs of their capacity of any region of the world, pulling in only about $53,000 per day versus an average of $128,000 around the globe. As Pemex's demand for these rigs increases with its deepwater exploration, day rates for these rigs are likely to increase, just as day rates for jackups in Mexican waters have increased over the last year from $40,000 a year ago to $54,000 today.
Pemex's semisub demand will likely grow over the next 2 years as it drills delineation wells in the Deep Coatzacoalcos field and tries to make further discoveries of deepwater fields, particularly in its northern GOM waters along the nautical border with the United States where potential for large discoveries still remains. These deepwater plays are of strategic importance to Pemex in the medium and long term, as they are the company's and country's best bets for maintaining and increasing production.
Ce vol est raconté dans certains livres de Noam Chomsky. D'ailleurs, il existe, il me semble, une phrase célèbre qui dit en substance :En effet, personne ne rappelle jamais que les Etats-Unis au XIXème siècle, dans la décennie 1840-1850, volèrent en définitive littéralement 2 millions de kms carrés au Méxique, soit les 2/5 du pays!! En Europe c'est l'ignorance crasse, aux Etats-Unis, c'est l'oubli... Au Méxique personne n'a oublié même les gens les plus modestes. Comme par hasard, dans ces terrotoirs volés se trouvent les deux régions les plus riches d'Amérique du Nord, le Texas et la Haute-Californie. En effet, juste après ce vol de territoir eu lieu dans ces régions les deux ruées célèbres, respectivements celle de l'or noir et celle de l'or jaune...
Des cardinaux américains plaident la cause des latinos à la Maison Blanche WASHINGTON - Des cardinaux américains dont l'archevêque de Los Angeles, Roger Mahony et l'archevêque de Washington Theodore McCarrick ont plaidé vendredi à la Maison Blanche la cause des immigrés d'origine hispanique avant les manifestations prévues lundi aux Etats-Unis.
Les deux cardinaux ont rencontré Karl Rove, le principal conseiller du président George W. Bush pour discuter du projet de loi sur l'immigration actuellement bloqué au Congrès, en vue de légaliser le statut des 11 à 12 millions d'immigrants clandestins.
Mgrs Mahony et McCarrick ont également rencontré des responsables de la minorité démocrate au Sénat dont le chef du groupe Harry Reid et le sénateur Edward Kennedy.
Le cardinal Mahony, à la tête du plus grand archevêché des Etats-Unis, s'est imposé comme le leader spirituel du mouvement qui a rassemblé fin mars et début avril des centaines de milliers de manifestants dans tous les Etats-Unis
Après les manifestations imposantes du 10 avril, Mgr Mahony avait appelé le Congrès à entendre l'appel des manifestants. "Nous sommes l'Amérique, une nation d'immigrants qui cherchent à avoir une vie meilleure", avait-il dit. A Washington, le cardinal McCarrick était venu lui-même soutenir les manifestants rassemblés devant le Capitole où siège le Congrès en leur déclarant, en espagnol, "nous sommes une nation d'immigrants".
Les organisations de défense des immigrés ont décidé d'organiser lundi "un jour sans immigrés" avec des rassemblements prévus dans tout le pays.
Les immigrés d'origine hispanique qui représentent la majorité des immigrés aux Etats-Unis, sont appelés à ne pas aller travailler, à ne rien consommer, à ne pas aller à l'école et à rejoindre les manifestations prévues un peu partout.
Les cardinaux sont d'accord sur le principe de cette journée et appellent aux manifestations mais sont hostiles à la grève et au boycott à la consommation.
"Je crois que nous pouvons faire du 1er mai un jour gagnant pour tout le monde: allez travailler, allez à l'école et après rejoignez avec nous les milliers de manifestants", a conseillé le cardinal Mahony lors d'une conférence de presse.
Les organisations de défense des immigrés demandent la légalisation du statut des immigrés clandestins aux Etats-Unis.
Les écueils pour faire aboutir une réforme, appelée de ses voeux par le président George W. Bush depuis plus de deux ans et réclamée par les milieux économiques, sont multiples.
Un compromis laborieusement négocié entre républicains et démocrates, mais critiqué par la frange la plus conservatrice de la majorité craignant qu'il ouvre la voie à une "amnistie" des clandestins, est bloqué au Sénat depuis le 7 avril.
En décembre, la chambre des représentants a adopté un projet coercitif criminalisant le séjour clandestin et prévoyant la construction d'un mur de plus de 1.000 km à la frontière mexicaine.
Les Hispaniques représentent la première minorité aux Etats-Unis avec 40 millions de personnes.
(©AFP / 28 avril 2006 22h13)