Shell to drill new ultra-deepwater well in Mexico

The Anglo-Dutch Shell will drill the well Luwa 1 EXP in ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

With an investment of more than 112 million dollars, Shell Based on this drilling, it will search for a new deposit in the area stipulated in its license agreement obtained in Round 2.4 of the previous administration.

In the approval of the modification to the Exploration Plan of the area where it will take place, Shell proposed since May an investment of between 56.2 and 112.7 million dollars, considering a base scenario and a higher risk scenario, with the drilling of a well, which is the one that the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) approved this Tuesday in its 77 extraordinary session of the governing body.

Shell decided to carry out this new drilling where its own wells are located, in the area: Xochicalco 1 EXP 46 kilometers away, the well Chimalli 1 EXP 29 kilometers and the Xuyi 1 EXP 50 kilometers from where this drilling will be carried out within the contract area AP-PG04/2018, which has an area of ​​1,900 square kilometers.

A well is considered to find a new deposit, which is located at 1,532 meters of water depth and will be drilled to a depth of 5,361 vertical meters. For this activity the drilling ship will be used Maersk Voyager, which has the capacity to drill up to 15,000 meters below the water depth. It is the same one that will be used with the well Xocol 1 EXP that the operator was authorized this Tuesday, with the same equipment.

The drilling program will last 86 days and will start on April 1, 2023, to conclude on June 18 of that same year, with which this activity will last 79 days; while the abandonment of the well will be from June 19 to June 25, with a duration of one week.

It is expected to find oil of 35 degrees APIthat is, light crude with prospective resources at the mean is 24 million barrels of crude oil equivalent, with a 25 percent chance of geological success.

Shell It is the international oil company with the largest exploration area in Mexico. It has 11 blocks awarded in an area of ​​20,766 square kilometers with total committed investments of 742 million dollars, in addition to the drilling of 13 exploratory wells.

For these works, the company petrguardians signed a contract for the lease of the platform last February The Wall IVproperty of Grupo R. Shell it also has at its disposal the drilling ship Deepwater Thalassa.

Also in February, the CNH approved to Shell the drilling of another exploratory well in ultra-deep waters: Max-1EXP, in another area of ​​Round 2.4, CS-G02, which was the second well to be drilled in ultra-deep waters in the Salina Basin of the Gulf of Mexico, at a depth total of 7,480 meters in a water depth of 2,511 meters. Before the contingency, Shell contemplated reaching the abandonment of the well on June 17 of this year, activities that according to the regulation of the CNH they could differ.

karol.garcia@eleconomista.mx