Mexico has enough oil reserves for next 18 years: President

Mexico City, Jan 12 (IANS) Mexico has enough oil reserves to meet demand for the next 18 years thanks to the oil exploration work spearheaded by his administration, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

"I can report that we have sufficient oil reserves for our administration and for the coming three administrations or three six-year terms, we will not suffer from a lack of oil," he added on Thursday at his usual daily press conference.

"We invested in exploration and we were lucky, we found very good fields on land and in shallow waters, and there is significant oil potential," the President said as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

Since he took office in December 2018, the state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has seen a reconversion of its business model to depend less on the sale of crude abroad and lean more toward refining, he added.

In 2024, 80 per cent of Pemex's revenue is expected to derive from the domestic market, mainly from the sale of fuel following a push to modernise the country's existing refineries and become more fuel self-sufficient, said Lopez Obrador.

"It is a complete change in oil policy," he added.