Italy's Eni has announced a new oil discovery offshore Mexico, in the Sureste Basin, saying it could contain between 200 and 300 million barrels of crude.
Eni is the operator and majority shareholder in Block 10 where the discovery was made, and has partnered with Lukoil and Cairn Energy subsidiary Capricorn.
"Mexico is a core country in Eni's strategy of future organic growth," the Italian supermajor said in its press release. "The company is currently producing approximately 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) from Area 1 and expects to reach a plateau of 100,000 boed in the first half of 2021. Eni is also planning an important exploration campaign in the other licenses held in Mexico."
Eni's plans will fit in nicely with the Mexican government's state intention to boost the country's oil production. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has promised that Mexico's oil output will hit 2.5 million bpd by 2024.
Meanwhile, Pemex said it had begun awarding contracts for exploration and development at a number of priority fields to oilfield service providers.
"We invite the companies, who form consortia to carry out these comprehensive projects, from construction of the facilities, the drilling of wells, laying both marine and onshore pipelines ... and the consortium that offers the best price wins," chief executive Octavio Romero told media as quoted by Reuters.
The state company has ambitious goals: discovering and developing 20 new oil and gas fields annually. This, according to analysts, is quite a bit on the over-optimistic side. Last year, the company identified 20 fields that it prioritized for exploration and development, but last month Natural Gas Intelligence reported that Pemex was behind schedule with their development, with just three of the 20 beginning production by the end of the year. The batch that the company is awarding contracts for now is the 2020 set of so-called priority fields.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More