According to the newspaper Reforma, the new oil field identified in the south of the Gulf of Mexico could help rescue the North American country's lagging industry.

According to the state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the field is located off the coast of the Mexican state of Campeche, and contains an estimated 66 million tonnes (900 million

barrels) of the fossil fuel. The discovery is one of the most important in the past decade.

Mexico's oil industry has been in crisis for years. The infrastructure operated by Pemex - which supplies 40 percent of government revenues - is getting old and wearing out.

Pemex is deprived of enough money to invest in maintaining and upgrading its equipment and carrying out new exploration as it is run as a state firm in a socialist system and a major part of its revenue is earmarked for the state budget.

In 2008, the Mexican Congress approved reform and allowed participation by private international firms - long rejected as a point of national pride.

According to reports of Bloomberg, Mexico's oil industry is in its seventh consecutive year of decline.

One-time seventh-largest oil producer in the world would be dry by 2018, said an analysts said in 2008.