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Mexican oil (Pemex) will increase its exploratory bet in shallow waters, off Tabasco, drilling up to 11 wells between 2022 and 2023 in allocation 153 Uchukil, where it will triple the investment originally projected for the exploratory stage, to reach a total of up to 549.1 million dollars exercised.
In its second extraordinary session of the governing body, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) approved a modification to the exploratory plan for the area to the state company, which so far has two unsuccessfully drilled wells in this assignment located in the geological province of the Southeast Basins.
By modifying the plan, it goes from an investment of 178.5 million dollars in the incremental scenario to 549.1 million, explained Rodrigo Hernández Ordoñez, general director of Exploration Opinions of the CNH. In addition, in an incremental scenario of activities, it will reach a total of 13 wells in the area, in addition to increasing exploratory study activities from nine to 17 in these two years.
As for the wells, a base of four additional drilling is considered, although depending on the financial situation of the State-owned company and market conditions, up to 11 additional exploratory wells may be drilled in addition to the two already drilled in the area.
“The expectation is not that you drill every prospect, but that you Pemex Now it changes its strategy and makes things easier by registering jobs that it can carry out according to its feasibility studies, without having to modify its plans again, wait for approvals and waste time to comply with its obligations in the regulation, ”said the official.
The wells will be drilled as deep as 6,500 meters to find light oil. The possible resources to be recovered, only in a baseline scenario of drilling four wells, will be 70.9 million barrels of crude oil equivalent, while in the incremental scenario this figure rises to 179 million barrels equivalent.
Adding the general expenses of administration of the allocation, safety, health and environment, geology and the drilling of wells, the investment in this exploratory stage would amount to 731.5 million dollars in an incremental scenario, of which 113 million have already been accumulated. of dollars.
“This is a modification to a plan that we would like to hear more about: activities are increasing, and although initial results in the area were not good, studies and trends indicate that prospects will undoubtedly improve,” said Commissioner Alma América Porres Luna.
It should be remembered that at the beginning of the last quarter of last year, Pemex received authorization to drill the Xanab-201 EXP well in an adjoining assignment, in the same region. This well required an investment of no less than 98.8 million dollars for its completion and presentation of results scheduled in February of this year, in order to find a new deposit with up to 17.3 million barrels as prospective resources.
However, according to the CNH well history, Pemex requested and received authorization to drill 51 exploratory wells up to that point, although he only executed half of these.
Until the last quarter of the year, Pemex had drilled 26 exploratory wells, which up to that moment were six more than last year and is also the highest number of these drilling since 2013, when the state-owned company drilled 40 wells. Although it should be remembered that in 2004 105 wells were drilled and still in 2009 71 holes were drilled.
Therefore, drilling four wells in only one assignment is good news for the country’s exploratory activity.
“All this positive change, with more investment and wells, is due to the fact that they have more information, I hope they will be very successful because there are 11 wells planned for an incremental scenario in two years, which can be very encouraging,” said Commissioner Héctor Moreira.
karol.garcia@eleconomista.mx
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