MEXICO CITY, March 19 (UPI) -- Mexican oil reserves increased 0.4 percent compared to the previous year, posting the second straight year of growth, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said.
Pena Nieto marked the 75th anniversary of state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, known also as Pemex, by announcing reserves increased 0.4 percent to 13.86 billion barrels as of Jan. 1, Bloomberg News reports.
The 0.1 percent increase last year to 13.81 billion barrels was the first year of growth in more than 10 years.
The U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports Mexican oil production declined from 2004-09 because of natural maturation. Reversing those declines is the responsibility of Pemex because of legal constraints on foreign ties to natural reserves.
Pemex last year discovered oil at a deep-water field in the Gulf of Mexico and onshore in the Mexican state of Tabasco.
Mexico nationalized the energy sector in the 1930s.
