Mexico’s state-run oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said Friday its output raised by 1 percent in June, bringing its monthly crude output to nearly 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd).

Until June, Mexico’s oil production had shrunk every month this year. It has been on decline since peaking at nearly 3.5 million bdp in October, 2004.

The main reason for the slide is the dramatic production decline in supergiant oil field Cantarell, which plunged from 2.2 million bpd in April of 2004 to just over 550,000 bpd in June of 2010, according to data from the Energy Ministry.

Pemex said its production averaged 2.59 million bpd in the first six months of 2010. June’s exports also rose to 1.39 million bdp, up 24 percent year on year. During the first half of 2010, exports averaged nearly 1.31 million bpd, or 5 percent more than a year earlier.

In 2009, world demand for energy was suppressed by the worst recession in decades, which began in the United States, Mexico’s main oil importer. As a result, Mexican oil price dropped to one-third of their 2008 level, prompting Mexico to hold back on exports.