Page 7 - LatAmOil Week 12 2021

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

One of these fields is Dieciocho de Marzo, which there in gas for operators willing to work hard
is likely to see production levels reach 15mn for it,” he remarked.
cubic metres per day by mid-year, he told the Jaguar obtained licences for 10 blocks in the
news agency in an interview published earlier Burgos and Tampico-Misantla basins under
this week. Mexico’s previous presidential administration,
Eventually, Levy commented, Dieciocho de headed by Enrique Peña Nieto, which took steps
Marzo and other fields in the basin may yield to break the monopoly that the national oil com-
enough gas to cover a significant portion of pany (NOC) Pemex held over the hydrocarbon
Mexico’s domestic demand. “What we believe sector. By contrast, the current administration,
our portfolio is capable of producing is some- headed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has
thing [of] the order of 10% of the gas that Mex- tried to restore Pemex’s primacy in multiple
ico needs to consume over a five- to seven-year ways, including the suspension of auctions like
horizon,” he said. those won by Jaguar in past years.” ™
Jaguar has been introducing new technol-
ogies to boost output rates at Burgos fields, he
added. “We’re flowing out of 18 fields in the
Burgos Basin. [There is] not a huge amount of
volume yet, but what we’re finding is that by
applying better science, we’re able to extract
more value out of the fields,” he commented.
Commercialising these reserves could help
Mexico reduce gas imports, he said. As long as
the country remains reliant on imports, he said,
there will be “a very large amount of money leak-
ing out of the Mexican economy.”
Private investors can help stop those leaks by
looking for opportunities to invest in gas fields,
he said. “Pemex made a strategic decision to
focus more on oil, but there’s a lot of potential left Jaguar’s Burgos Basin fields are south of the border with Texas (Image: Jaguar E&P)

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Khan sees Trinidad and Tobago’s oil

output topping 90,000 bpd by 2025

TRINIDAD and Tobago is on track to see crude doing that,” he said.
oil production top 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) Additionally, he stated, HPCL hopes to find
by the middle of the decade, according to Energy new reserves that can push yields even higher.
Minister Franklin Khan. To that end, he said, it has evaluated the Trinmar
In an interview with the Business Guardian licence area and is also examining proposals for
newspaper, Khan said that the country was likely establishing joint ventures to develop the Jubilee
to see output levels reach 92,000 bpd by 2025. and South-West Soldado fields.
(This would represent a nearly 62% increase on He also stated that Port of Spain was trying
the 2020 average of 56,800 bpd, as calculated to attract international oil companies (IOCs) by
from figures published by the Central Bank of pointing out the possibility that new technolo-
Trinidad and Tobago.) gies might help identify new onshore fields. Exx-
The minister also said he expected most of onMobil (US) is taking a look at Trinidad and
these extra barrels to come from Heritage Petro- Tobago’s onshore zone in the hope of finding
leum Co. Ltd (HPCL), the national oil company crude within the Cretaceous strata, which have
(NOC). “This will probably take about two proved to be highly prospective in the nearby
years, but I can see Heritage ramping up to over Guyana-Suriname basin, he noted..
60,000-70,000 bpd of oil by 2024,” he said. “My understanding is that [ExxonMobil]
He did not say exactly which fields were likely may be interested in it because it’s Cretaceous
to account for the increase, but he did note that oil they [are] finding in Guyana and Suriname,
HPCL was working to stabilise production at its you know. It is not the same basin, but we are
existing sites. “I am speaking to [HPCL execu- already part of the eastern Venezuela basin. So as
tives] very regularly, and I have told them I want a long-term strategy, that could be on the table,”
a laser-beam focus on production and they are he said. ™

Week 12 25•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7