Pemex Submits Development Plan For Major Offshore Oil Project In Mexico

Mexico’s state oil firm Pemex and its partners in the Zama offshore oil discovery submitted on Thursday the development plan for the project that could see its oil production reach levels greater than 10% of Mexico’s current output.

Talos Energy, leading a consortium of foreign oil companies, discovered the large Zama oil deposit in 2017. At an estimated 670 million recoverable barrels of oil, the discovery was the largest oil find in Mexico by a private company in decades.  

Pemex, however, has said that the Zama deposit extends to a neighboring block operated by the Mexican state oil company. Mexico, whose president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seeks greater role for Pemex in domestic oil production, appointed last year Pemex as operator of the Zama oilfield. A so-called Unitization Resolution of the Zama field provides for joint development of the entire reservoir instead of each party developing its own block, Talos Energy said a year ago. 

This week, Talos Energy announced that Pemex, as operator, submitted the Zama Unit Development Plan to Mexico's National Commission of Hydrocarbons, CNH, for formal approval.

The development plan for Zama envisages two offshore fixed platforms, 46 dry-tree wells, and oil and gas transportation to new facilities in Terminal Maritima Dos Bocas.  

“We understand the importance of this project to Mexico and look forward to continuing our collaboration as we look towards formal approval and to advance the project to FID,” Talos president and CEO Timothy S. Duncan said in a statement.

Zama’s development plan would result in the field producing up to 180,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, which represents over 10% of Mexico's current oil production. Production is expected to be comprised of approximately 94% oil of excellent quality, with API gravities of between 26° and 29°, Talos says.  

Earlier this month, another foreign firm, Italy’s Eni, said it had discovered oil in the Sureste Basin offshore Mexico in a prospect that could contain around 200 million barrels of oil in place.    

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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