Mexico has enough oil to last at least 11 years and possibly 35 years, Energy Minister Fernando Elizondo said on Monday, slamming a report that the government had burned through much of the country's reserves.
State oil monopoly Pemex also fired back at a front-page headline in left-wing daily La Jornada which said conservative President Vicente Fox had "burned through 42 percent of oil reserves" in the first half of his six-year term.
Elizondo said that a 42 percent drop in Mexico's proven hydrocarbon reserves between January 2001 and January 2004 was largely due to a reclassification of part of the reserves as "probable" or "possible" reserves, under new auditing guidelines.
"It's nothing more than a reclassification of the same reserves. The true reduction in total reserves under this administration is around 18 percent," Elizondo said, facing the press for the first time since being appointed on June 1.
"We have crude oil proven to be economically exploitable for 11 or 12 years and we have a high probability and a high possibility that we have economically exploitable crude oil for as much as 30 or 35 years."
Reserves data is extremely sensitive for oil companies.
Oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell shocked investors in January by slashing its proven reserves by 20 percent.
Despite having no private shareholders to answer to, Pemex opted a few years ago to have its hydrocarbon reserves verified by independent auditors to comply with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules, Elizondo said.
Pemex is a major cash cow for Mexico and a top three supplier of oil to the United States.
The company is under pressure to bolster its reserves with new oil and gas finds following years of under-investment and amid concerns it could lose its place in the global oil market and become over-dependent on gas imports.