Mexico City (Platts)--18Mar2009

Mexico's proven reserves of crude and equivalent stood at 14.3 billion
barrels on January 1, down 2.7% on the year-earlier reserve level, President
Felipe Calderon said Wednesday.

The decline was Mexico's lowest in at least five years and marked a
sharp increase in the country's reserve replacement rate, said Calderon at a
rally to mark the 71st anniversary of the Mexican oil industry.

Last year, 72% of Mexican production was replaced by new discoveries and
reclassifications of reserves into the proven category, he said. "That
compares with a 41% replacement rate in 2006 when my administration began,"
Calderon said. Mexico now has proven reserves to cover 10 years of production
at current rates, he added.

The president said Mexico's total proven, probable and possible reserves
stood at 43.6 billion barrels on January 1, down from 44.5 billion barrels a
year earlier.

Calderon's speech was the highlight of a generally lackluster ceremony.
But it lacked an element that many had been waiting for an announcement of the
location of a new refinery for state Pemex. The decision to build the refinery
was announced by Calderon last October as part of a package of measures to
bolster the Mexican economy against the world crisis.

Amid fierce lobbying by state governors, Pemex director-general Jesus
Reyes Heroles had promised an announcement on the location in February. When
no announcement was forthcoming, speculation centered on Oil Nationalization
Day Wednesday.

But Calderon, who had earlier said a decision on the location would be
taken on strictly technical grounds, threw the initiative back into the
political arena. He called on Congress to debate the issue with participation
by all interested parties. But Calderon left little time for a decision,
setting April 15 as the deadline.

--Ronald Buchanan, newsdesk@platts.com