Locator: 52057B.
WTI: $103.50. Does anyone know what's going on? The red-green alliance to interrupt oil ports around the world tomorrow? It gets tedious. Let the dogs out.
New wells reporting:
- Sunday, November 1 2026: 0 for the month, 66 for the quarter, 565 for the year,
- None.
- Saturday, October 31, 2026: 66 for the month, 66 for the quarter, 565 for the year,
- None.
- Friday, October 30, 2026: 66 for the month, 66 for the quarter, 565 for the year,
- None.
RBN Energy: can a massive ultra-deepwater project with Woodside Energy help turn Pemex around? Link here. Archived.
Petróleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state-owned oil and gas company, has been mired in debt and plagued by operational and other challenges for many years, but a high-profile joint venture (JV) with Australia’s Woodside Energy may — emphasis on may — signal the beginning of a turnaround. The $7.2 billion, 100-Mb/d Trion project, Pemex’s first ultra-deepwater development, is proceeding on schedule and on budget and is slated to deliver its first oil in 2028. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll discuss Pemex’s troubled past (and present) and why its Trion Oil Project JV with Woodside — and the prospects for more partnerships with Woodside and Brazil’s Petrobras in the deepwater Gulf — could help.
Established in 1938 with Mexico’s nationalization of 17 foreign-owned oil and gas producers, Pemex’s initial focus was onshore production, mostly in Tabasco, Veracruz and Chiapas states in southeastern Mexico; by the 1960s, its crude oil output there was topping 300 Mb/d. But a big discovery was in the making.
In July 1961, a fisherman named Rudo Cantarell noticed a bubbling black oil slick on the blue-green waters of the Bay of Campeche, about 50 miles west of the Yucatán Peninsula. He told his fellow shrimpers and anyone else who would listen, but no one believed him until he finally convinced Pemex officials in Ciudad de Carmen to come take a look in 1971. Their visit to the site eventually led to exploratory drilling: The first test well in 1976 — in waters only 250 feet deep —produced extraordinary volumes of crude oil (upwards of 35 Mb/d) and the massive oil find was quickly named in Rudo’s honor: the Cantarell Field — light-blue shaded area in Figure 1 below. (Rudo was given a modest job at Pemex and a pension.)
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The Book Page
Background: in October, 2026, I got interested in Alexander and read three books --
- Dividing the Spoils,
- Arrian's Alexander's Campaigns,
- The Cleopatras.
I'm pretty much complete with these three books ... and then, out of the blue, in my inbox -- a National Geographic article on Aristotle's school. Incredible coincidence. So, here's the link: Aristotle's school.
