Maya is a blend of crude oils from the Cantarell and Ku Maloob Zaap oil fields. The discovery of Cantarell, once one of the world’s most prolific oil fields, turned Mexico into a major oil exporter in the 1980s.

Maya is a heavy, high-sulfur grade—22 degrees API gravity and 3.5% sulfur—that makes up about 49% of total Mexican production and 78% of total Mexican crude exports.

Mexico currently produces about 2.2 million barrels a day (MMb/d) of crude oil, which makes it the 12th largest producing country in the world. P.M.I. Comercio Internacional S.A. de C.V. (PMI) is the crude oil marketing entity of state-controlled Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) and manages exports that currently comprise about one-half of production, ~1.1 MMb/d. PMI exports four distinct quality grades of crude oil, ranging from Altamira (an asphalt grade) and Maya on the lower end of the quality spectrum, to Isthmus in the middle, and Olmeca at the higher end. PMI reports that its typical customer base includes a total of about 25 refiners in the Americas, Europe, and the Far East.