There are “certainly doubts” about the field’s profitability and the technology that should be used, said Suarez Coppel

“Chicontepec has a great potential, and we have to keep investing to find a way to exploit it in a profitable manner,” he said today in a Radio Formula interview.

The government is “evaluating” its $11.1 billion Chicontepec investment after the field missed production targets, Energy Minister Georgina Kessel told Bloomberg last week.

Pemex in June cut its forecast for the onshore field to 60,000 barrels per day by year-end, down from a previous prediction of 72,000.

“There’s a lot of potential onshore,” said Suarez Coppel. “Not so much in new fields, but developing the matured fields where we haven’t applied new technologies.”

Chicontepec stretches across the Puebla and Veracruz states in eastern Mexico, a Bloomberg report said.

Mexico’s Congress revised laws last year to allow Pemex to hire private and foreign companies to explore and produce oil but many of last year’s changes have not been implemented because of Pemex’s “turtle-like” pace, Suarez Coppel said.

The company structure limits the flexibility and speed of corporate decisions, Suarez Coppel said.

The listing of so-called citizen bonds, also created in last year’s oil law, is “critical” for the state company, Suarez Coppel said.

These citizen bonds will be helpful not only to raise funds, but also to measure the administration performance,” he said.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon proposed creating such bonds to allow yields to be tied to profit or production at Pemex.

Mexico needs “deep changes” to its oil industry and tax laws to finance its budget, Calderon said.

Published: 10 September 2009 18:10 GMT  | Last updated: 10 September 2009 18:10 GMT