Mexico To Import US Light Oil? Kurds To Ramp Up Oil Production Now That US Has Stopped ISIS Advance In The Oil Fields -- August 15, 2014

Two interesting stories being reported by Reuters over at Rigzone.

First, Mexico's Pemex may be getting ready to import light oil from the US:

Mexico's state-owned oil company, Pemex, is poised to abandon a decades-old devotion to self-sufficiency in crude oil, entering talks with U.S. companies about importing light crude from its northern neighbor, where output is booming. Chief Executive Emilio Lozoya said in an interview late on Thursday that Pemex was very likely to start importing light crude from the United States in the next few months, to generate more value from the Mexico's six domestic refineries.

Lozoya said importing light crude from the United States was "a very good idea" that Pemex was analyzing, noting that it could help the company's refining unit boost output of products it is often forced to import, including gasoline and diesel.

"There has been a very big prejudice within Pemex to import crude," he said, pointing to an opportunity for Pemex given booming light crude output in the United States, particularly in the Eagle Ford Formation in Texas.

Analysts have said that light crude imports from the United States could increase gradually to 200,000 barrels per day over the course of the next year.

Second, despite the ISIS advance in Iraq, the Kurds say things are going so well, they plan to ramp up oil exports:

Oil production at Iraqi Kurdistan's largest-producing field is set to rise to as much as 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the month despite the advance of Islamist militants, the general manager of the operating company told Reuters.

"We have a target to ramp up production towards 140,000 bpd and I believe we would achieve this by the end of the month," Onder Tekeli from Taq Taq Operating Co (TTOPCO), a joint venture of Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy and Sinopec's Addax Petroleum said late on Thursday.

Radical Sunni militants of the Islamic State last week advanced to within a half hour's drive of Arbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region and a hub for international oil companies, before U.S. military air strikes thwarted their advance.

Several Western oil companies including U.S. giants like ExxonMobil and Chevron operating in the previously stable Kurdish enclave have evacuated some of their staff while some smaller producers like Afren have halted production. 

Call me cynical but I will believe it when I see it. On the other hand, it certainly looks like the Baraq Iraq re-engagement is all about the oil, American air strikes coming just when it looked like ISIS might be icing the Kurdish oil fields.

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