Mexico’s Oil Industry Starts to Look Deep
墨西哥開始探採深海石油
By Elisabeth Malkin

LA MURALLA IV, Gulf of Mexico – The computer screens in the control room on this giant floating platform monitor pressure levels in a narrow shaft cut through bedrock to a reservoir of natural gas five kilometers below.
在墨西哥灣巨大的穆拉拉4號海上鑽油平台的控制室，電腦螢幕監控著一個狹窄豎坑的壓力，豎坑穿透海底岩床，直通5公里下方蘊藏的天然氣。

For six months, an international team hired by a contractor for Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil monopoly, has been drilling an exploratory well here. Now, the work is nearly done.
墨西哥國營石油公司一家承包商雇用的一支國際團隊，已經在這裡鑽探6個月，工作即將完成。

An operation like this would attract little attention in the northern part of the gulf, where dozens of deepwater platforms are part of the mosaic fueling America’s energy boom. On the Mexican side, though, the search is just beginning.
墨西哥灣北段海域的數十座深海鑽油平台是促成美國能源榮景的功臣之一。墨國國油的這種探勘作業在那片海域不會引起什麼注意。不過在墨國這一邊的海域，探勘才剛開始。

Pemex is counting on a future in deepwater production. But after eight years of exploratory drilling, it is still years away from producing the first barrel of oil in deep waters. Before it can, Pemex must shed its past as a lumbering state monopoly and remake itself as a streamlined company ready to compete on a world stage.
墨西哥國油將前途寄望於深海開採。然而經過8年的勘採後，生產第一桶取自深海的石油仍須再等上數年。在此之前，該公司必須自我改造，與身為大而無當國營壟斷事業的過去說再見，成為一家準備在世界舞台上競爭的精簡化企業。

“The real large fields, the material opportunities for Pemex, lie in deep water,” Emilio Lozoya Austin, the company’s chief executive, said. “This is where our biggest learning curve lies.”
該公司執行長羅索亞說：「對本公司而言，真正的大型海底油田與實質機會在深海。這是我們最主要學習曲線的所在。」

Mr. Lozoya’s ambitious plans are part of a sweeping overhaul of Mexico’s energy sector intended to increase flagging oil and gas production. By ending Pemex’s monopoly, the government hopes to attract serious outside investment for the first time since Mexico kicked out foreign oil companies in 1938.
墨西哥政府試圖全面改造墨國能源產業，以提高石油、天然氣產量，奧斯丁具有企圖心的構想是這全盤計畫的環節之一。墨西哥政府希望在結束墨國國油的壟斷後，得以在墨西哥1938年將外國石油公司全數逐出後，再度吸引有分量的外來投資。

Within a year, Mexico’s regulator, the National Hydrocarbons Commission, will hold the country’s first open auctions for oil and gas fields, including deepwater regions in the Gulf of Mexico.
墨西哥的監督機構國家石油委員會將在一年內舉辦墨國首次的石油、天然氣田公開拍賣，包括墨西哥灣的深海區。

“Pemex will not have any special privileges at all,” said Juan Carlos Zepeda, the president of the hydrocarbons commission.
委員會主席卡羅斯說：「國營石油公司不會享有任何特權。」

The change will not be easy for Pemex, long run as an arm of the government. The company’s task has been to pump oil and provide cash for the Mexican government, a job made possible by generous discoveries in the shallow waters of the southern gulf in the 1970s. The result was that Pemex suffered losses and never invested for the future. Closed off from the global industry, it fell behind the energy giants.
對長年充當墨國政府臂膀的墨國國油來說，改變絕不輕鬆。該公司向來負責開採石油，為墨國政府提供現金。它1970年代在墨西哥灣南段海域的淺水區發現蘊藏量極豐的石油，使其得以執行這項任務。然而墨國國油卻因此出現虧損，而且從未投資於未來。它不再具有國際競爭力，落在各能源巨擘之後。

Since the peak in 2004, Mexican crude oil production has fallen by about a million barrels a day to an expected 2.35 million barrels a day this year.
墨國原油生產2004年達到最高峰，今年的每日產量估計約僅235萬桶，比高峰期每天少了100萬桶。

And Pemex has neither the financial capital nor the expertise to produce oil and gas from its complex deepwater reserves.
墨國國油要從它複雜的深海蘊藏區生產石油與天然氣，必須的資金與專業技術兩樣都不具備。

Mr. Lozoya’s priority for deep water next year is to attract partners to begin production at two fields. Private investment in oil and gas production is forecast to rise steadily each year to reach about $27 billion by 2020.
羅索亞為明年規畫的深海優先要務是，吸引合夥人，開始在2處海底油田生產。預料石油、天然氣的私人投資額將逐年穩定增加，於2020年達到270億美元左右。

But Pemex’s reputation for corruption is one of investors’ main concerns, said Deborah Byers, a managing partner at EY consulting in Houston, Texas.
然而德州休士頓EY顧問公司執行合夥人黛博拉．貝爾斯表示，墨國國油的貪腐惡名是投資人的主要顧慮之一。

Mexican prosecutors are investigating one of Pemex’s largest contractors, the politically connected marine services company Oceanografía, over accusations of a $400 million bank fraud scheme
墨國檢方正在調查墨國國油最大承包商之一Oceanografia涉及的一項4億美元銀行詐欺案。它是政界關係良好的海洋服務公司。

To tighten control over Pemex’s $40 billion contract operations, Mr. Lozoya has centralized them in one department.
羅索亞已將國油400億美元發包作業集中在一個部門，以加強管理。

And Pemex has trouble managing its sprawling industrial properties that bleed money and attention from the company’s exploration and production division. The company has lost $1.15 billion this year to criminals’ tapping into its pipelines.
墨國國油無法有效管理不斷燒錢的龐大財產與勘採部門引起的注意。該公司今年因為犯罪分子自其輸油管線偷竊石油而損失11.5億美元。

Mr. Lozoya argues that Pemex has taken the most important step in a turnaround. “We have stopped talking about barrels,” he said. “We only talk about U.S. dollars and pesos now. It’s not about volumes. It’s about value.”
羅索亞表示，墨國國油已經採取最重要的改變步驟。他說：「我們不再談論幾桶的問題。我們現在只談論美元與披索。產量不是重點；價值才是。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/business/energy-environment/pemex-petroleos-mexico-oil-gets-ready-to-step-into-a-public-ring.html

2014-11-18聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報八版右