Storms in Mexico, $93 oil
Another day, another record oil price:
Crude oil climbed above $93 a barrel on Monday for the first time, extending this month's gain to 16 percent, after Mexico shut a fifth of its production and the dollar fell to a record low.
The state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos, one of the three largest suppliers of crude to the United States, halted output of about 600,000 barrels a day because of storms, a spokesman, Carlos Ramirez, said in Mexico City.
Yowza. The National Hurricane Center is tracking a tropical storm right now, but it's nowhere near the Gulf of Mexico, nor is it projected to enter the Gulf. But these other storms must be pretty powerful regardless:
The company shut output of 200,000 barrels at noon New York time Sunday and was planning to idle wells that produce a further 400,000 barrels by midnight Sunday in Mexico, said Ramirez, the company spokesman. The wells are to be closed until at least Tuesday, Ramirez said, without elaborating.
The closure was in the Bay of Campeche, the same area where 21 workers died after another storm last week caused an oil rig to hit a platform.
This comes just a few days after news from Mexico that seemed good on the surface, but wasn't:
Crude oil output from Mexico's declining Cantarell offshore field recovered to 1.461 million barrels per day in September after a hurricane knocked down August production levels to 1.319 million bpd, the energy ministry reported on Friday.
The figure, posted on the ministry's Web site a few days after state-owned oil monopoly Pemex announced its overall monthly production data, was still the second-lowest monthly output level this year.
Ouch. No wonder Mexico is in line to become a net oil importer.
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