MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico aims to lift oil and gas production by almost 50 percent in the next six years, and in January will agree on infrastructure and drilling contracts to develop 20 fields, the head of state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos said on Saturday.

Octavio Romero, chief executive officer of the company generally known as Pemex, said the new government would increase exploration investment by around 10 percent per year to reverse dwindling output as he presented a new plan for the industry.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, wants to revive Pemex, which has become heavily indebted as crude output slipped from a peak of 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2004 to less than 1.8 million in October.

“Soon, Petroleos Mexicanos will again be a source of national pride,” Romero said alongside Lopez Obrador in the port of Ciudad del Carmen in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

By the end of 2024, Mexican crude output will climb to some 2.624 million barrels per day (bpd), while gas production will also rise by about 50 percent, Romero said.

Output will stabilize in the coming months and start to pick up toward the end of next year, the Pemex CEO said.

Mexico’s previous government sought to increase production by opening up production and exploration to private capital. But the decline has yet to bottom out.

Lopez Obrador, an admirer of Lazaro Cardenas, the president who nationalized Mexico’s oil industry 80 years ago, was opposed to the 2013-14 constitutional overhaul of the industry carried out by his predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto.

The veteran leftist says he will respect the private oil contracts awarded under Pena Nieto, but this month challenged oil majors to start pumping oil quickly, offering them a three-year “truce,” without giving further details.

In the meantime, Mexico will speed up exploitation of 20 fields in and around the Gulf of Mexico, Romero said. To this end, contracts to develop the necessary infrastructure will be awarded on Jan. 15 and to drill wells on Jan. 31, he added.

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