Drilling:
Petroleos Mexicanos increased drilling activities in Mexico during 1968; 602 wells were drilled, 103 (20.6%) more than during 1967 and 306 (103.3%) more than were completed during 1966. Of the 602 wells, 151 (11.8% more than in 1967) were exploration wells, of which 13 did not reach their objectives because of mechanical difficulties, and 451 wells were development wells. The total meters drilled was 1,447,284, an increase of 254,175 (21%) from 1967. The total meters of exploratory wells was 421,790, which is 27,720 (7%) more than in 1967. The average exploratory well depth was 2,943 m, and the average development well depth was 2,274 m. The success in new-field wildcats was 21.5% compared with 17.8% for 1967, and total exploratory wells of other categories increased to 40% in 1968 from 0.6% in 1967.

Exploratory crews:
Twenty-eight surface geological parties, 14 subsurface geological parties, 23 seismic parties, 2 gravimetric parties, and 1 land magnetometric party operated throughout 1968. In addition, a marine seismic crew operated 2 months offshore and an aerial magnetometer crew worked 3 months.

Exploratory drilling:
Of the 151 exploratory wells drilled in 1968, 13 failed to reach their objectives because of mechanical failures. Of the 138 remaining wells, 93 were new-field wildcats which resulted in the discovery of 20 new oil and/or gas fields, a success of 21.5%. Of the other 45 exploratory wells, 42 were extension wells or new-pool tests on productive structures, and 3 were stratigraphic tests in areas where commercial amounts of hydrocarbons possibly are present. Of these miscellaneous exploratory wells, the success was 40%.

Annual production of oil and gas:
The annual production of crude oil and distillate was 160,485,702 bbl, an increase of 7% from 1967. The annual gas production was 576,870 MMcf, an increase of 0.7% from 1967.

Reserves:
At the end of 1968, the proved reserves of oil and gas (thermal equivalent) reached 5,530,383,000 bbl, an increase of 44,497,000 bbl from 1967.