EIA: Mexico's energy reform could boost oil production

The declining trend of Mexico's crude oil production could be reversed as the country is taking drastic reforms and embracing foreign investment, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report that Mexico pumped an average of 2.9 barrels of oil per day last year, continuing the decline from its peak of 3.85 million barrels of oil per day in 2004. But the trend might be reversed as the country has ratified sweeping reforms to its energy sector, ending the 75-year monopoly that state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, has had on the country's energy resources. Earlier this month, California-based Chevron Corp., the world's third-largest energy company by market value, disclosed that it is working on a partnership plan with Pemex. Mexico is one of the largest oil producers in the world and has huge untapped reserves. The EIA estimates its proved reserves to be 10.3 billion barrels as of 2013. However, the latin American country's oil production has dropped 25 percent in the past decade, with last month hitting the lowest in 19 years at an average of 2.5 million barrels per day, the agency said.