Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 12 2021

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Premier and Chrysaor expected to

retain minority stake in Zama oilfield

CHRYSAOR Holdings and Premier Oil, both binding agreement on them.
based in the UK, are expected to retain the lat- As of press time, it was not clear if Premier
ter company’s minority share in Zama, a large and the other investors in Zama expected
oilfield located off the coast of Mexico’s Tabasco to conclude a deal with Pemex by March 25.
State, following their merger into a new com- US-based Talos Energy, the operator of the field,
pany that will be known as Harbour Energy. indicated last month that it was making progress
Premier had said in 2019 that it wanted to sell in talks with the NOC. It also said it hoped to
its 25% stake in Zama, which may hold nearly make a final investment decision (FID) on the
700mn barrels of oil in recoverable reserves. project before the end of 2021.
However, it has yet to do so, partly because Talos and its two non-operating partners –
Mexico’s government has ordered shareholders Premier and Sierra Oil and Gas, a subsidiary
to unitise the field with nearby sites operated by of Wintershall Dea – won the right to explore
the national oil company (NOC) Pemex and Zama in 2015. Equity in the project is split 35%
partly because of questions related to Premier’s to Talos, 25% to Premier and 40% to Sierra. The
proposal for a reverse takeover of Chrysaor. partners later announced the discovery of mas-
Now, though, Premier is confident that sive reserves at the shallow field, which is now
Chrysaor will opt to move ahead with the devel- classified as the largest find ever made by a pri-
opment of Zama following the merger of the two vate-sector operator in Mexico. Pemex and the
companies. Bloomberg quoted Richard Rose, Mexican government favour proposals to uni-
Premier’s CFO, as saying last week: “They like tise Zama with the nearby Asab, Chamak and
Zama, and I fully anticipate that they will look Naquita fields. ™
to retain it and develop.”
Chrysaor, for its part, has thus far declined
to comment on the matter. Bloomberg noted,
though, that the company had said last Octo-
ber that it expected the merger with Premier to
expand its footprint in Latin America and other
regions. (Chrysaor is not currently active in the
region.)
Premier and Chrysaor have already agreed
to move forward with the merger, and the for-
mer company is due to begin trading as Harbour
Energy on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) as
of April 1. Meanwhile, Mexico’s Energy Minis-
try, known as SENER, has ordered sharehold-
ers in Zama to strike an agreement with Pemex
on the unitisation of Zama with surrounding
fields by March 25. If the parties cannot meet
that deadline, SENER has the right to impose a Zama is in the southern Gulf of Mexico (Image: Premier Oil)

Jaguar CEO sees Burgos Basin cutting

Mexico’s dependence on gas imports

WARREN Levy, the CEO of Mexico’s Jaguar noted that the company’s fields in the Burgos
E&P, has been talking up the prospects of the Basin, a southward extension of the formation
Burgos Basin, an unconventional play that lies that includes the Eagle Ford shale play, con-
south of the border with Texas. tained about 210bn cubic feet (5.95bn cubic
According to a report from Bloomberg, Levy metres) of unconventional gas.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 12 25•March•2021