Mexico watch: Petrofac to begin work, NXT survey, crude output

London-based service company Petrofac expects to begin operations in January at the Pánuco block in Mexico's Veracruz state with partner Schlumberger, the former said in an operational update. Petrofac won the contract to operate the Pánuco field in June during the second round of integrated service contracts by Mexico's state oil company Pemex. The company also won the contract for the shallow water Arenque block in August after an unsuccessful tender in June. Petrofac will be the sole operator of Arenque and expects to start work on the block by the end of 1Q13. *** Canadian aerial surveyor NXT Energy Solutions has completed work from its US$5.8mn contract with Pemex, its largest project to date, NXT said in a press release. NXT began stress field detection (SFD) work for the NOC in September and completed data interpretation and integration in less than four months. The location and results of the survey have not been disclosed. *** Pemex reported crude output of 2.58Mb/d in November, the company's highest average monthly production since April 2011. The increase was due to development of projects Yaxché, Chuc and Tsimín-Xux in the southeast marine region; Chicontepec in the north; Ku-Maloob-Zaap in the northeastern marine region; and Ogarrio-Magallanes in the south by the NOC*s E&P branch PEP. Through the first 11 months of 2012 Pemex average production of 2.54Mb/d.