Pemex’s Exit From ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ May Hurt Cicsa

Petroleos Mexicanos’s plans to scale back drilling by 60 percent next year at its $11 billion Chicontepec oil field will hurt Mexican oil services providers as they lose contracts to companies such as Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd., analysts said.

Pemex, as Latin America’s biggest oil producer is known, is shifting its strategy on Chicontepec and earmarking the majority of the field’s 2011 budget of 21 billion pesos ($1.7 billion) for research after output missed forecasts, Chief Executive Officer Juan Jose Suarez Coppel said Oct. 1 in an interview.