OPEC oil ministers are due to hold an extraordinary meeting on June 21 to discuss whether to raise crude output to temper surging world oil prices. When asked whether Mexico would support an OPEC production increase, Rogelio Montemayor, Director General of PEMEX, Mexico's state oil monopoly, said, "We're prepared to do that." In addition, Montemayor, speaking to reporters at the World Petroleum Congress, said PEMEX was working on getting more production out of several projects, particularly its offshore Cantarell oilfield in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico.

"In April we raised production by 150,000 barrels per day (bpd)," he said.He said Cantarell was currently producing 1.4 million bpd and by next year it should be producing 2 million bpd. "We are increasing month by month in an incremental basis," he said.

"As a producer, we would like to put more oil in the market, and we are working on that," he said. In addition, Montemayor said PEMEX is "willing and able" to boost production. "Any decision that is taken this month would be effected by the end of July," he said, meaning that if there were an announcement of more oil coming from Cantarell this month it would take several weeks to hit the market.