Page 16 - LatAmOil Week 01 2021

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Zama lies off the coast of Tabasco state (Image: Talos Energy)
Both of the blocks involved in the talks are that country’s government adopted major
located off the coast of the state of Tabasco in reforms in the oil sector, thereby ending Pemex’s
the southern Gulf of Mexico. Each of them con- 75-year-old monopoly on exploration.
tains a section of Zama, which is believed to hold The US company is working at Zama in a
nearly 700mn barrels of oil. SENER has never consortium with Germany’s Wintershall Dea
before chosen unitisation for a field of this size. and the UK’s Premier Oil. The group’s block
The ongoing discussions between the par- holds 60% of the reservoir, while Pemex’s licence
ties will determine who runs the offshore Zama area contains the remaining 40%, according to
discovery, a preliminary split of the reservoir, as an engineering study carried out by the oil con-
well as other development details. sulting firm Netherland, Sewell & Associates.
Talos Energy discovered Zama in 2017. At However, Pemex has claimed that more than
the time, it was the first major find made by a half of the deposit is to be found in its neigh-
private or foreign oil company in Mexico since bouring block. ™

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Energy minister: Retail gasoline price

controls to be lifted by end-January

FRANKLIN Khan, the energy minister of Trin- Petroleum Dealers Association (PDA).
idad and Tobago, said late last month that his He also said that Port of Spain intended to
country was on track to lift price controls on establish a transparent pricing system once the
the domestic retail gasoline market by the end controls were lifted. “The population will know
of January. how the pricing formula is based, very trans-
Speaking to NewsDay, Khan dismissed parently, on international market prices,” he
rumours that prices might be liberalised as of declared. “We will be posting on the first day of
January 1, saying that more time was needed to every month the wholesale price of liquid fuel.
establish a legal foundation for this move. The You will know the wholesale price, and ... [you]
government has already taken one step in this will know the quantum of mark-up charged on
direction through the introduction of its first the population.”
Finance Bill and will submit a second Finance The government will not restrict retail pric-
Bill to legislators in early January, he said. ing, though it will attempt to prevent collusion,
The second document will lay the ground- he added. “You will make your own judgement
work for the enactment of certain provisions of because it’s a free market. We do not tell grocer-
the Budget Act, such as the imposition of fines ies how to sell their product and by the same
for theft and the revision of parts of the Petro- token we will not be telling gas station owners
leum Act, he explained. The revisions are nec- how to sell their fuel,” he said. “But obviously we
essary, since the Petroleum Act in its current don’t want any cartelisation. We don’t want any
form tasks the ministers of energy and finance price gouging. So we’ll be monitoring that very,
with setting retail fuel prices, NewsDay noted, very closely. We hope that competition and the
citing Robin Narayansingh, the president of the market will keep the prices within reason.”

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 07•January•2021