By CGTN’s Martin Markovits
The fall in oil production in Mexico has caused cites on the country's Gulf coast to fall on hard times. One of the places affected most is Ciudad del Carmen, which lost around 23,000 jobs in just the last two years. Businesses are failing and there is a sense that the city's best days are behind it.
An electrician looking for work sits behind a sign advertising his services in Mexico City, Mexico. /VCG Photo
Mexico's oil sector has been losing billions of dollars annually, which is now producing less oil than the US state of Texas. This is a sharp difference from a couple of decades ago when petroleum was Mexico's main export.
As a result, many properties in Ciudad de Carmen have been abandoned. It is projected that in 2017, the state oil company will pump less than two million barrels a day – the lowest in 37 years.
Now, with the oil wells drying up, and production at a standstill, Mexico's state oil company Pemex needs fewer workers than it did before.
The logo of Mexico's state-owned company Pemex in Cadereyta, Mexico, April 20, 2017. /VCG Photo
"When your economy relies on oil or in oil revenues, the rest of your economic activity becomes depressed. So the problem is the ongoing daily service. Pemex has been forced to cut back on workers because it doesn't need them because of the rate of decline has increased significantly," said Miriam Grunstein, Energy Analyst.
In an effort to help the troubled oil industry, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto pushed an overhaul of Pemex, opening it up to private investment for the first time.
But Ciudad del Carmen, and other cities on the Gulf coast, have yet to see the benefits, and now with US President Donald Trump's vow to renegotiate free trade agreements with Mexico, there is sense for many of the workers that they won't find work anytime soon.
