UPDATE 3-Mexico oil output falls, natgas imports soar

(Recasts with detail, 10-month sales, oil price)

By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Mexican crude oil production and exports fell in October after a storm disrupted operations for several days, the latest in a string of setbacks for state oil monopoly Pemex this year.

Pemex said on Thursday oil production fell to 2.995 million barrels per day from 3.161 million bpd in September after bad weather in the Gulf of Mexico caused it to shut down 600,000 of offshore oil production for several days in late October.

The storm also caused an accident at one of Pemex's offshore drilling platforms, and 21 rig workers died trying to escape.

Oil exports, affected by closures of Gulf ports, slipped to 1.503 million bpd from 1.679 million bpd in September, when oil operations bounced back from storm disruption in August.

Weather disruption has left Pemex's oil output at an average of 3.113 million bpd so far this year, in line with the company's forecasts but well below average output of 3.256 million in 2006 and a peak of 3.383 million in 2004.

Grappling with sliding yields at its huge but matured Cantarell offshore field, Pemex has set a goal to maintain oil output at around 3.1 million bpd over the next few years.

High oil prices have kept Mexico's oil revenues intact, however, with oil export revenues over the first 10 months of 2007 at $29.7 billion, in line with the year-ago figure of $29.8 billion.

Mexican crude has shipped at an average of $57.85 per barrel this year versus $53.04 last year; it rose above $84 per barrel this week.

Pemex also reported a 23 percent jump in natural gas imports to 557.9 million cubic feet per day in October from 453.2 million cfd in September. Natural gas production also rose to 6.350 billion cfd from 6.104 billion cfd in September.

Pemex's natural gas output is up 13.3 percent this year, helping match steadily rising demand.

The monopoly's natural gas distribution network was also hurt this year when a leftist rebel group twice bombed its pipeline network.

Pemex is a top three oil supplier to the United States. (Additional reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz; editing by Leslie Adler)