MEXICO CITY, March 26 (Reuters) - Mexican state energy

company Pemex said its crude oil production in February hit its

lowest monthly level in 45 years, as output of the key commodity

remained far from the goals laid out by outgoing President

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The company's latest numbers, published late on Monday,

showed Pemex pumped an average of 1.55 million barrels per day

(bpd) in February, its lowest level since 1979.

The slumping oil output follows government efforts

designed to prop up Pemex in an attempt to reach 1.9 million

bpd.

Production at the highly indebted driller has been on a

gradual decline from its peak of 3.4 million bpd two decades ago

as many aging oil fields reach the end of their productive life

and new discoveries coming online fail to compensate.

Lopez Obrador, who on the campaign trail in 2018 pledged to

grow crude production to 3 million bpd, has progressively

revised that estimate downward ever since.

February output fell 2.4% compared with the same month last

year, even as the company counted 276,000 bpd of condensate

liquids towards the overall number.

Condensate is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids

that is not usually counted towards crude oil production.

Jesus Carrillo, an energy expert from the Mexican Institute

for Competitiveness, said the government's push to strengthen

Pemex - Lopez Obrador often describes his policy as a company

"rescue" - had failed.

"They have spent an unprecedented amount of money supposedly

rescuing Pemex and it's becoming clear that this did not result

in increased production," said Carillo.

Pemex's six local oil refineries, meanwhile, in February

processed 17% more crude year on year.

The refineries also produced 371,000 bpd of gasoline and

113,000 bpd of diesel during the first two months of this year.