A tale of natural wealth in the tiny state of North America
Mexico has marked herself in the eleventh position amongst the oil-producing nations all over the globe. It has a rank of thirteenth according to the amount of oil exported outside along with containing the planet's seventeenth-largest oil reservoir. Being the fourth-largest oil producer in the entire Western Hemisphere, just after the US, Canada and Venezuela, the nation is a member of the North American Free Trade Association. However, the oil production in Mexico has fallen, it still yields around 10% of the country's income from export.
Production and Productivity
Mexico is currently producing three sorts of oil, among which the maximum of the production is occupied by the Maya-22, which is the heaviest. The other two are the Olmeca-39, the lightest amongst these three, constituting 20% of the entire production and the low-sulphur Isthmus-34 that makes around 28% of the net extracted oil.
Mexico's oil-related operations are mostly state-controlled and organised by Pemex, a state-owned company. It is the only supplier of every gasoline station used for commercial purposes. Mexico's biggest oil extracting field is Cantarell Field. According to the report by Pemex, the reserved oil in this field was almost 11.5 billion barrels. A basin, namely Chicontepec, has been found as a source of several oil fields near the Golden Lane. This basin is a gem for the nation! It is proven to be the largest reserve of hydrocarbons of more than 19 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Since 2004, the annual growth in oil production has been witnessing stagnation and even a negative trend.
Effects on Environment
Several accidents have taken place during the oil extraction in the Mexican oil fields. In 2010, the Gulf of Mexico experienced one such heartbreaking accident, known as Deepwater Horizon Spill. There’s a common understanding that accidents in oil fields generally destroy marine life and the ecology of water, however, it also dismantles the ecology of land. Petroleum and the materials related to it damage the consumable (for drinking, bathing) water sources and emit poisonous chemicals that affect the environment of the land and the air.
Much research has been carried out showing that the drilling for oil extraction has made the oil reserving places ineligible for the habituation of general people, as well as other animals and plants in Mexico. The fatality in the ecosystem it invites makes it impossible to live in those places. An example might be Poza Rica, an oil reserving city in Mexico.
