Mexico Exploration and Production – February 2021

The Energy Reform saw over 100 licences assigned between 2015-2018 with 73 companies participating through various licencing awards in exploration, appraisal, field development and producing acreage onshore and offshore Mexico.

Exploration success kicked off in 2017 with the Zama discovery (2C: 670MMBOE) followed by Cholula (2P:78MMBBLS), Xaxamani 2 (2P: 35MMBBLS), Saasken (STOIIP: 200-300MMBBLS), Chinwol(2P: 123MMBOE) and Polok(2P: 193MMMBOE), in the offshore Salinas Basins. Zama was subsequently appraised, and its Operator Talos Energy is currently carrying out its FEED evaluation and progressing unitisation of the field with PEMEX. Operators for the other exploration discoveries (Murphy Oil, ENI, Hokchi Energy, Repsol) are planning appraisal programs within the next 2 years.

Appraisal of existing PEMEX discoveries were successfully executed for the Amoca-Mizton-Tecoalli (AMT), Hokchi, Ichalkil-Pokoch and Trion fields respectively. ENI’s AMT(STOIIP:2.1 BBOE STOIIP) started early production from Mizton in 2019, less than 2.5 years from spudding its first appraisal well. Current production is at 15kbopd (Nov 2020) with the rest of the development (2 platforms at Amoca and another at Tecoalli utilising an FPSO) expected to be completed in 2021 with peak production expected around 100kboepd. Hokchi Energy started production of the Hokchi Field(2P: 177MMBBO, 54BCFG) in May 2020 with current production at 16kbopd(Nov 2020). In September 2020, SENER instructed Hokchi Energy and PEMEX to start the unitisation process of the Hokchi and Itta (2P 29MMBBLS; 18BCFG) fields. Fieldwood’s Ichalkil-Pokoch has recently received approval of its modified development plan while Trion(2P: 319MMBBLS, 309BCFG) is expected to produce first oil mid-2025. In March 2020, the Operator BHP contracted McDermott to provide the pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) services for a floating production unit (FPU) with peak production expected around 100kbopd.

Workovers, recompletions and drilling of new wells has increased production in existing onshore fields such as Santuario (14kbopd), Ogarrio (5.8kbopd) and Ebony (5kbopd) by Operators such as Perenco, Winershall Dea, Diavaz and Pantera. As existing fields continue to decline PEMEX prioritised 17 fields in the shallow water and onshore for development in 2020 which are currently producing 92KBOPD and 186MMSCFGPD.

Over the past 5 years, both oil and gas production has been on the decline. Current oil production is at an average of 1.6 MMBOPD in which 55kbopd is a result of awards to private contracts from the energy reform. By 2025 production is expected to increase by at least 350kbopd from private contracts providing up to 25% of the country's production.

Fields:

Zama Field, offshore Mexico