May 26 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, asked the Finance Ministry for an extra 20 billion pesos ($1.5 billion) in funding because of the peso’s slump. The currency’s decline led to a “distortion” in Pemex’s budget, Carlos Morales, Pemex’s director for exploration and production, said today in Mexico City. The company may finalize an agreement with the government within days, he said.
Pemex wants to maintain record spending of 228.2 billion this year to offset the fastest decline in output since World War II. The peso’s 17 percent plunge since the budget was finalized in the third quarter is forcing the company to spend more on goods and services priced in U.S. dollars. “Pemex has an important part of its expenses in dollars,” Morales said. “We are working with the Finance Ministry so they can help us fix some of those differences in the budget. We are in the final steps to get the money from the ministry.”
About 60 percent of the Mexico City-based oil company’s spending is in dollars used to pay contractors including Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger Ltd. Pemex originally set a capital budget of 228.2 billion pesos for 2009. Pemex has said it will raise $10 billion by borrowing from banks, selling local and international bonds and receiving loans from export-import banks this year.
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Pemex production averaged 2.799 million barrels a day last year, down from 3.083 million barrels in 2007. Production from its Cantarell field averaged 1.01 million barrels a day, from 1.471 million barrels the year before.
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