Mexico receives Korean rig for deep water drilling

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's state-owned oil company said Monday it has received a deep water rig from South Korea to drill for potential reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. The 110-meter (yard) wide platform, which can drill in waters more than 3,000 meters (around 10,000 feet) deep, arrived Saturday in Mexico's eastern port of Tuxpan and will be operational from June.

The platform, on lease for five years, will start on a project with a total drilling depth of up to 5,000 meters, a company statement said. An explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig in the US Gulf of Mexico last year killed 11 workers, caused millions of barrels of oil to spill into the sea and left the British company with huge compensation costs. Following the spill, Washington imposed a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which it lifted in October. Pemex said foreign experts would help Mexican technicians operate its new platform, as Mexico joins the race for reserves in deeper and more dangerous waters. Mexico's crude production stabilized in 2010 when it fell slightly to around 2.5 million barrels per day after declining for many years. Oil is Mexico's main source of foreign income, contributing to around 40 percent of government revenues.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011