Pemex formalizes alliance with New Fortress

Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) signed a contract with the New York company New Fortress Energy (NFE) to resume the extraction work of up to 300 million cubic feet per day of gas in the deepwater non-associated gas field in the Gulf of Mexico called Lakach , located 90 kilometers from the Port of Veracruz, with an investment of 1,500 million dollars.

Despite the presidential commitment not to invest in activities that at the beginning of this administration were classified as unprofitable (including the exploitation of hydrocarbons in deep waters), Octavio Romero Oropeza, general director of Pemex reconsidered and, together with the federal government, admitted that the The new price environment forced them to resume activities in the Lakach field, whose natural gas production will start in a year, according to the manager.

Lakach is a field with resources of up to 900,000 million cubic feet of natural gas, which is 1,000 meters deep in the Gulf of Mexico, explained Romero Oropeza at the opening of the civil works facilities of the Olmeca refinery in Dos Mouths, Tabasco. There “1.4 billion dollars have been invested that Pemex could not throw away, so the good news is that the company returns to deep water and in July 2023 it will have the first gas production from this field,” he said at the time.

This project had been suspended for six years.

The NFE company agrees to complement this investment with an additional 1.5 billion dollars. In this operation, Pemex maintains ownership of the deposit and at the end of the contract it will own the entire infrastructure.

This agreement will allow the production of this hydrocarbon to begin in the first quarter of 2024. Lakach represents a reserve of around 900 billion cubic feet, which means an average production of 300 million cubic feet per day over a 10-year horizon.

In this same act, a commercialization contract was signed through which Pemex will sell 190 million cubic feet per day to the company NFE and the remaining 110 million cubic feet per day will enter Mexican territory for national consumption.

It should be noted that on the periphery of the Lakach Field there are other deposits with a reserve three times greater and that could make synergy with the Lakach Field, which is why the evaluation will begin for its more efficient development.

In July, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) also signed an agreement with New Fortress Energy for an investment of US$2.2 billion to strengthen its position in international markets by becoming a partner with a 10% stake in a first liquefaction module, 15% in the second module and 20% in the third, in a project in Baja California Sur.

karol.garcia@eleconomista.mx