Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 34 2022

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

BP to exit upstream project in Mexico due

to concerns about commercial viability

BP (UK) is opting to wind down an upstream Bloomberg also reported that BP was seeking
project in Mexico due to concerns about the to exit CNH-R01-L04-A3.CS/2016, a block in
commercial viability of its licence area, a com- which it held a non-operating stake. The licence
pany representative told Bloomberg last week. area is operated by Equinor, which is also plan-
Selene Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the ning to wind down its upstream operations in
multi-national’s BP Exploration Mexico sub- Mexico in order to concentrate on renewable
sidiary, confirmed that Mexican authorities energy projects and higher-priority hydrocar-
had recently granted the company permission bon basins, the news agency said.
to make an early exit from its production-shar- It did not say when the UK-based giant was
ing contract (PSC) for the CNH-R03-L01- expected to complete its exit from any of the
G-CS-03/2018 licence. The BP subsidiary had three blocks.
teamed up with an affiliate of TotalEnergies BP began bidding for exploration rights to
(France) and two local companies, Hokchi Mexican licence areas in 2016, about three years
Energy and QPI Mexico, to explore and develop after the administration of then-President Enri-
the shallow-water block in the Bay of Campeche. que Peña Nieto opened the oil and gas sector up
Gonzalez explained to Bloomberg that BP to foreign investment. Peña Nieto’s successor,
had asked to withdraw from the project after Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has walked
reviewing the seismic data collected from CNH- back many of these reforms in a bid to preserve
R03-L01-G-CS-03/2018. These data indicated the power of state-controlled organisations such
that the block did not have the geological char- as the national oil company (NOC) Pemex. ™
acteristics needed to maximise the chances of
commercial success, she said.
This is not the first time this year that BP
has exited a Mexican upstream project, the
news agency noted. In February, the company
transferred operational, management and
corporate control of its contract for the CNH-
R01-L04-A1.CS/2016 block over to Total E&P
Mexico, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies. BP had
been awarded rights to the site, which is located
in the deepwater section of the southern Gulf
of Mexico offshore Veracruz and Tabasco states,
in partnership with TotalEnergies and Equinor
(Norway). BP will be able to exit the CNH-R03-L01-G-CS-03/2018 PSC early (Image: CNH)

Mexico’s pipeline imports of US gas

reported up by 12% y/y in 5M-2022

NEW data from the US Energy Information climbed from 600mn cubic feet (17 mcm) per
Administration (EIA) show that pipeline day in 2019 before doubling to 1.2 bcf (33.98
exports of natural gas from West Texas to Mex- mcm) per day in 2021. This figure has increased
ico rose 12% year on year in the first five months once again, as there are now more connecting
of 2022. Export volumes averaged 1.4bn billion pipelines in central and south-west Mexico in
cubic feet (39.65mn cubic metres) per day, the operation than ever before.
EIA said last week in a new monthly report. The biggest factor driving the expansion of
This increase is in line with the sustained US natural gas exports in this direction has been
upswing in exports over the last few years. growth in the electric power sector in Mexico
Shipments of gas from West Texas to Mexico and, to a lesser extent, the industrial sector.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 24•August•2022