Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 35

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Operadora Bloque 12 is set to spend $3.27mn on
the drilling of Ochpán-1EXP. The firm hopes to
find crude oil with a specific gravity of about 32
degrees API in the well, and it believes Block 12
may hold as much as 26.7mn barrels of oil equiv-
alent (boe) in total. The licence area, which lies
close to the municipality of Hidalgotitlán, covers
an area of 244.7 square km.
CNH also said it would allow Shell Explo-
ración y Extraction, a Mexican subsidiary of
Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Netherlands), to drill
an exploration well at an offshore field known as
Xochicalco. The Shell affiliate intends to sink the
well, which will be known as Xochicalco-1EXP,
at a site about 198 km from Tampico, a city in
Tamaulipas State. Under its permit, it may drill
both the well and a sidetrack shaft.
Shell Exploración y Extraction is set to spend
$117.2mn on the drilling of Xochicalco-1EXP.
It hopes to find crude oil with a specific gravity
of about 35 degrees API there, and it believes
Xochicalco and the surrounding Aguas Deep Shell will drill Xochicalco-1EXP offshore Tamaulipas (Image: CNH)
block may contain as much as 562mn boe. The
licence area, which lies in an ultra-deepwater relatively underexplored area in the Gulf of
section of the Gulf of Mexico, covers an area of Mexico that has little in the way of development
1,967 square km. infrastructure.
Xochicalco-1EXP will be the fourth deepwa- The company intends to use Muralla IV, a
ter well drilled by the Shell subsidiary, as well as semi-submersible rig owned by Mexico’s Grupo
the second well drilled in the Perdido fold belt, a R, to sink the new exploration well. ™

COLOMBIA
Industry group says Colombia could

attract $715mn in private investment

COLOMBIA has a chance of securing more
than $700mn worth of investment from pri-
vate oil and gas firms before the end of this year,
according to the Colombian Petroleum Associ-
ation (ACP), a local industry group.
Francisco José Lloreda, the president of the
ACP, said in a statement last week that privately
owned companies were ready to make around
$715mn available for the development of
Colombia’s crude oil and natural gas resources.
These funds could play a crucial role in the
revival of the hydrocarbon sector, which could
then help jump-start the country’s economy, he
commented.
“We know the potential the country has in
oil and gas, in onshore, offshore and unconven- Lloreda also called for oil and gas policy reforms (Image: Crudo Transparente)
tional deposits, among others, which could be a
source of income and economic strength, both transport and finish drawing up the technical
regionally and nationally,” he was quoted as say- and environmental regulations that will govern
ing in the statement. a number of projects that are slated for launch in
Colombia should work to secure these 2021, he said.
investments by establishing a supportive reg- Additionally, he said, the government should
ulatory regime, Lloreda said. Specifically, it push forward with pilot projects at unconven-
should address the cost of oil and gas pipeline tional hydrocarbon fields.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 03•September•2020