Juan Carlos Zepeda, the head of the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), the watchdog for Pemex's upstream operations, said the company should team up with private third parties to adequately exploit their off-shore resources.
Mexico has so far only drilled 16 wells in its territorial waters in the Gulf, where Pemex estimates there are more than 29 billion barrels of crude equivalent, or 58 percent of the country's prospective resources.
The company has little experience in deepwater drilling at more than 1,640 feet (500 meters) but plans to jump into depths of around 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) next year with the Maximino well in the northern Gulf, Zepeda told Reuters.
"The quantum leaps Pemex is taking will not permit them to accumulate the experience needed for these types of projects," Zepeda said in an interview. "They are moving too fast."
Pemex recently began opening up the nationalized oil sector to more private investment with incentive-based operating contracts to exploit several small, mature fields and has said it plans to use the contracts for deepwater sites.
But the contracts will likely only be used in a minimum number of wells, Zepeda said, although Pemex has yet to announce its plans.
"In ultra-deepwater Pemex should be accompanied by companies that have experience," he said.
The commission has implemented new safety regulations that Pemex must follow in deepwater, including third party evaluation of well safety and a plan to measure the risk of oil spills and create containment plans.
Chevron was recently ordered to halt drilling in Brazil after an estimated 2,400 barrels of oil leaked from its Frade field off Rio de Janeiro's coast, raising concerns that Brazil has overestimated its capacity to exploit deep, technically challenging "subsalt" reserves.
The Frade leak, while small, is likely to provide more ammunition for the growing worldwide opposition to offshore drilling in the wake of the estimated 4-million-barrel BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Zepeda said Mexico should focus on exploring for oil on land and in shallow waters where it has more experience and expertise.
"Deepwater should be included in the map of explorations opportunities, but with a specific weight," Zepeda said at an event earlier this week. "Other opportunities ... offer, without a doubt, less risks."
