(Recasts, adds comments from executive, further details on reserve, production, drilling; adds byline) By Bruce Nichols HOUSTON, May 6 (Reuters) - Mexico has found commercial oil and gas in the deep Gulf of Mexico and expects to move rapidly into the arena, aiming to have five rigs drilling 10 wells a year by 2012, a Pemex <PEMX.UL> executive said on Wednesday. "We are very conscious in Mexico that deep water is something we need to attack very fast and very efficiently," Pemex exploration and production director Carlos Morales Gil told an Offshore Technology Conference session. Mexico has eased historical constitutional limits on foreign involvement in oil projects, and Pemex hopes to engage international exploration and production companies and oilfield service companies as it moves into deep water, Morales said. Pemex estimates Mexico's remaining potential reserves at 52 billion barrels of oil equivalent <Bboe>, 56 percent of it in Gulf waters deeper than 500 meters <1,640 feet>, Morales said. The country has produced 44 Bboe to date, he noted. Already Tamil-1 well has found commercial heavy oil whose quantities have yet to be estimated. Lakach has discovered natural gas reserves of at least 400 Bboe, with expected production of 400 million cubic feet of gas per day (Mmcfd), Morales told reporters after the meeting. Mexico historically has stayed onshore and in shallow water but has drilled eight wells in the deep Gulf since 2003. Four have failed to find oil or gas, including the recent Tamha-1. But great optimism remains, and a major seismic survey effort is underway to find more prospects, Morales said. "There is solid expectation for identifying a significant number of exploration opportunities," Morales said. Two deepwater wells currently are being drilled. The Noble Max Smith <NE.N> is drilling Cox prospect in 500 meters (1,640 feet) water depth, and the Ocean Voyager <DO.N> is drilling Catamat in 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) of water, Morales said. Results are expected by August, he said. A total of five or six wells will be drilled this year, as many as seven in 2010 and as many as 10 in 2011 as more rigs become available, Morales said. Current plans call for Petrorig <PMENA>, Sea Dragon <SDX.V> and Mexican-owned La Muralla to join the Mexican deep Gulf drilling effort by end of 2011. La Muralla will be capable of drilling in 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) of water, Morales said. The pace of development of the Lakach gas discovery depends on market prices for gas, which have fallen to $3 per thousand cubic feet from double-digits last year, and also on project costs, Morales said. "We are working right now to reduce development costs with new technologies in order to, let's say, pass the project the gas prices holding today," he said. Morales said it had been a mistake for Mexico to focus solely on onshore and shallow-water development. He said Pemex will not rely entirely on deep water either but will try to be diversified. Mexico also needs international help, he said. A shortage of pipelines in deep Mexican waters could mean, for example, that the Mexican side of the U.S. Perdido prospect might flow to market through U.S. pipes if the two countries agree. (Editing by David Gregorio)
Passengers wearing protective masks walk inside Mexico's city subway May 6, 2009. The Mexican capital began to stir back to life on Wednesday with the streets again clogged with traffic and ...
