Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 33 2021

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Zama is in the southern Gulf of Mexico offshore Tabasco (Image: Premier Oil)
Pemex reportedly lacks funds for Zama
MEXICO’S state-owned oil operator Pemex is short of the funds it will need to develop Zama, a major oilfield located off the coast of Tabasco state, sources familiar with discussions at the national oil company (NOC) told Bloomberg last week.
According to the sources, Pemex does not have the $2bn sum to cover its share of expendi- tures at Zama, the largest field ever found in Mexico by a privately-owned company, over the next five to seven years, the report added. The NOC took control of the oil deposit in July, after the government wrested control of it from a pri- vate consortium led by US-based Talos Energy. Mexican authorities took this step following prolonged discussions between Pemex and Talos over who would operate the field.
Talos won rights to the block in Mexico’s first competitive oil auction following the adoption of wide-ranging energy reforms in 2013-2014, under the administration of former President Enrique Peña Nieto. It discovered Zama, which is estimated to hold nearly 700mn barrels of oil,
in 2017.
Subsequently, the Mexican government
began claiming that the field extended into a neighbouring block assigned to Pemex – Uchukil 0152, which includes the Asab, Chamak and Naquita fields – and ordered the two com- panies to unitise the sites.
These moves are in line with the policy of current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obra- dor, who believes that state-controlled compa- nies should dominate the energy sector.
Talos and its partners have invested nearly $350mn in the Zama field to date, according to Bloomberg. Towards the end of last year, Mexico’s state oil regulator, the National Hydro- carbon Commission (CNH), approved the US firm’s $875mn budget for work at Zama in 2021.
Equity in the project is divided: split 35% to Talos,40% to Wintershall Sea (Germany) and 25% to Premier Oil (UK), which has retained its stake in the field following its merger with Chrysaor Holdings, another British firm, into a new company known as Harbour Energy.™
Lukoil spuds Yoti West-1X well at Block 12
RUSSIA’SLukoilsaidearlierthisweekthatithad spudded its first exploration well at the Block 12 licence area in the southern Gulf of Mexico.
In a statement, Lukoil said that its Lukoil Upstream Mexico subsidiary had begun drill- ing the Yoti West-1Exp well in 207-metre-deep water at the shallow-water block, which is
located offshore Tabasco state. The Russian firm also reported that the Valaris 8505, a semi-sub- mersible rig owned by Houston-headquartered Valaris, was being used to sink the well.
The statement did not say how deep the well would be or when drilling work might be completed.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 33 19•August•2021