Page 7 - LatAmOil Week 21 2022

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

The company expects to spend a total of 221 incorporate new resources into Mexico’s oil
days on drilling and completion activities, with reserves and stimulate the development of light
160 days of work on drilling, 60 days on comple- crude fields in the south-eastern region of the
tion and six days on abandonment. country.
The Pemex subsidiary is hoping to find light Upstream Online noted that the AE-0149-
crude oil with a specific gravity of 38.9-39.3 M-Uchukil concession was close to Area 1, an
degrees API in the well. It will be targeting hori- offshore block that is being developed by Italy’s
zons in the Kigmeridian late Jurassic/Creta- Eni.
ceous era, and its chances of success have been The Italian major began early production at
estimated at 25%. Popoca-1EXP’s prospective Miztón, one of the three oilfields within Area 1,
resources at risk mean have been calculated at in 2019 and installed the Miamte MV 34, a new-
68mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe). build floating production, storage and off-load-
In its authorisation, CNH said it hoped ing (FPSO) vessel, at the block earlier this year to
the Popoca-1EXP drilling project would help ramp up production. ™

CUBA
Melbana Energy spuds Zapato-1 at Block 9

AUSTRALIA’S Melbana Energy revealed ear- at the surface.
lier this week that it had spudded the Zapato-1 The Australian company did not say when it
exploration well at Block 9, its contract area expected to finish drilling Zapato-1 or how deep
onshore Cuba. the well would be.
The company said in a statement that it had According to previous reports, Melbana has
begun sinking the well within the framework of already carried out exploration drilling work at
a two-well drilling programme on May 21. Zap- another section of Block 9. The company spud-
ato-1 is slated to test a target that has a prospec- ded the Alameda-1 well last year and made an
tive resource (best estimate) of 95mn barrels of unexpected oil find at the relatively shallow
crude oil, it reported. depth of 454 metres while also encountering
More specifically, Melbana said it had deter- crude and natural gas within deeper horizons.
mined that the well was likely to encounter the It has identified the Marti structure as a target of
Zapato structure, “with nearly 1,000 metres of interest within the Alameda field.
vertical relief.” Zapato appears to be the primary Melbana has a 30% stake in Block 9 and is
structure of – and, therefore, the primary source serving as operator of the project. It is devel-
of – the crude oil found in Motembo, a shallow oping the contract area in co-operation with
field discovered in the late 1800s. That field was Angola’s national oil company (NOC) Sonangol,
reported to contain very light crude with a spe- which acquired a 70% stake in the project via a
cific gravity equivalent to 50-64.5 degrees API farm-in deal in 2020.

Zapato-1 is on the same trend as the Varadero oilfield (Image: Melbana Energy)

Week 21 26•May•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7