Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 28 2020

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If the companies fail to reach agreement on the operatorship, SENER will make the decision. is will be the rst time that a large deal of this kind has been negotiated in Mexico.
e consortium developing Zama includes UK-based Premier Oil and Germany’s Winter- shall Dea, as well as Talos. e group found oil at the eld in 2014.
Zama is believed to contain almost 700mn barrels of oil. at makes it the largest new nd by a private company in Mexico in decades.
Mexico’s oil regulator, the National Hydro- carbons Commission (CNH), said in April that Pemex could go ahead and seek new joint ven- ture partnerships in spite of the government’s decision to freeze farm-out deals.
Talos and its partners secured access to Zama during Mexico’s previous government, headed by President Enrique Peña Nieto. But Peña’s
successor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, does not favour the policy reforms that opened Mex- ico’s energy sector up to private producers and eliminated Pemex’s monopoly on production. e current administration froze farm-outs in 2019 and has cancelled seven tie-up deals that the NOC was due to nalise next year.
Nevertheless, there are a number of large projects that Pemex has not been able to develop alone, and those remain candidates for farm-outs, CNH has said. It has determined that around 100 of Pemex’s current portfolio of more than 350 projects fall into this category because they are not producing yet, and would be returned to the state if Pemex does not meet minimum work commitments.
ere are currently three Pemex tie-ups in operation. All of them were given the green light by the previous government.™
Zama is in the southern Gulf of Mexico (Image: Talos Energy)
PERU
GeoPark seeks to withdraw from Morona block in Peru
GEOPARK, an independent company regis- tered in Bermuda, has announced plans to with- draw from the Morona block in Peru.
In a statement detailing its performance in the second quarter, GeoPark said it had initi- ated the formal processes that would allow it to “irrevocably retire” from the Morona pro- ject. It explained its decision to withdraw from the block, which has not been in production for some time, by pointing to “extended force majeure which allows for the termination of the license contract.”
e divestment is in line with the company’s business strategy, the statement said. GeoPark
is working to streamline and improve its opera- tions in all areas, and as such it has been conduct- ing a “top-to-bottom review in all departments and capabilities,” the statement said.
GeoPark has a 75% stake in Morona and is serving as operator of the project. Peru’s national petroleum licensing agency PeruPetro holds the remaining 25% of equity.
The independent company signed a joint investment agreement (JIA) and joint operat- ing agreement (JOA) on the Morona project in October 2014. e block covers an area of 2,356 acres (9.534 square km) in the Loreto depart- ment and lies within the Marañon basin.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 28 16•July•2020