Pemex to probe southern Gulf of Mexico

State-owned Pemex will expand its hunt for commercial quantities of light crude and natural gas in the southern Gulf of Mexico by scheduling 11 exploratory wells for 2003. It is concentrating on 5,200 square miles in the state of Veracruz and Tabasco through its Coatzacoalcos Project that was identified as an investment priority in 1993. The biggest discovery from sporadic drilling is the Santa Ana field, with reserves estimated at almost 36 million barrels of crude and equivalent.