Drilling:
Petroleos Mexicanos drilled 519 wells during 1969. Of these, 134 were exploratory wells, 5 of which did not reach their objective because of mechanical failure; in addition to the exploratory wells, 385 development wells were drilled. The total meters drilled during 1969 was 1,275,636. Of this amount, 409,500 m was in exploratory drilling. The average depth per well was 3,100 m for exploratory wells and 2,249 m for development wells. New-field wildcat successes increased to 23%, a slight improvement over the 21.5% for 1968. The success of exploratory wells of other categories was 45.5%, contrasted with the 40% obtained in 1968.

Exploratory crews:
Twenty-eight surface geologic parties, 14 subsurface geologic parties, 22 seismic parties, 3 gravimetric parties, and 1 land magnetometer crew were active. In addition, 1 marine seismic crew and 1 aeromagnetometer crew were active for a total of 3 party months.

Exploratory drilling:
Of the 134 exploratory wells drilled during 1969, 5 did not reach their objectives because of mechanical failures; of the remaining 129, 74 were new-field wildcats of which 17 found oil or gas--a success of 23%. Of the 55 unsuccessful wells, the object of 50 was to extend productive acreage in fields under active development, or to discover new pools in known producing structures; 5 others were designed as stratigraphic tests in areas where commercial hydrocarbons may exist.

Annual production of oil and gas:
Annual crude oil and condensate production was 168.4 million bbl, an increase of 4.9% from 1968. The annual gas production was 609 billion cu ft, an increase of 5.6% from 1968.

Reserves:
At the end of 1969, the proved reserves of oil and gas (thermal equivalent) was 5,570 million bbl, an increase of 39,617,000 bbl from 1968.