Listado de la etiqueta: exploration and production

Mexico oil production to reach 2.6 mil b/d by 2025: Lopez Obrador

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S&P Globals Platts / Wendy Wells / Daniel Rodríguez / September 11

 

Mexico City — Mexico’s President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Sunday he plans to focus on developing and exploring onshore and shallow water areas under the control of state oil company Pemex to boost the country’s oil production.

«We have a projection, and our plan is to have production of at least 2.6 million b/d by the end of the presidential term; additional production of 800,000 b/d,» Lopez Obrador said in webcast press conference.

Lopez Obrador was speaking to journalists after a meeting with Mexican drilling and oil service companies at Villahermosa in Tabasco.

Mexico’s production averaged 1.8 million b/d in July, down from an historical high of 3.4 million b/d in 2004, latest data from Mexico’s National Hydrocarbon Commission showed.

Lopez Obrador said the incoming administration plans to tender drilling contracts in December when his six-year term begins to develop Pemex’s shallow water and inland areas to boost oil production. «We are inviting all companies to participate in these tenders. However, we will have a preference over domestic contractors,» he added.

He said he planned to add Peso 75 billion ($3.9 billion) to Pemex’s exploration and production budget to boost drilling and thus raise output. The tenders will help Mexico reverse its production downtrend by the end of 2019, he added.

Mexico’s oil industry is at a crisis as a result of low public investment in the sector. Pemex in 2017 had an E&P capital expenditure budget of Peso 81.5 billion, down from Peso 222 billion in 2014, the company’s annual financial statements show. The cut in Pemex’s budget resulted in a significant decrease in drilling activity; it drilled 83 wells in 2017, compared with 705 in 2013.

Lopez Obrador blamed the previous administration for Pemex’s lower capital expenditure, claiming it was done on purpose amid expectations the private sector would offset lower activity from the state company. «It has been a complete failure, this wrongly named energy reform,» Lopez Obrador said

The president-elect has historically been an opponent of private participation in Mexico’s energy sector. His critics note Pemex’s spending cuts reflect lower global oil prices after 2014.

The president-elect neither mentioned the long-term nature of the energy sector nor the advances made by Eni at Amoca, PanAmerica with Hotchi and Talos with Zama, where peak production across the three fields could be above 250,000 b/d.

Analysts also point out that Lopez Obrador does not acknowledge that it has been a challenge for Mexico to replace production from the aging Cantarell super field, which produced 2.1 million b/d in 2003 and but 160,000 b/d in July.

Mexico won’t call for new hydrocarbon auction rounds until all 107 contracts awarded to date under the energy reform are reviewed for corruption, Lopez Obrador said.

«The majority aren’t working, there is no investment, but those 107 contracts don’t include all the oil regions in the country, just a fraction of Mexico’s hydrocarbon potential,» he added.

The president-elect did not indicate when this contract review process could conclude. Currently, Mexico’s National Hydrocarbon Commission is organizing two gas-rich auction rounds, which are expected to be awarded in February.

The commission postponed both auctions as well as a Pemex’s auction to farm out seven onshore clusters in southern Mexico from this summer until the coming year, citing a request from the industry for more time to analyze the areas as well as the opportunity to involve the incoming administration in the process.

Lopez Obrador said the state owns all of Mexico’s oil resources, and has greater control over areas that have not yet been assigned. «The greater majority of our oil potential is still under the control of Pemex,» he added.

 

S&P Globals / Wendy Wells / Daniel Rodríguez / September 11

 

Mexican energy sector overhaul could reduce U.S. export demand

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Chron / Katherine Blunt / August 6

 

An ambitious plan to boost Mexico’s oil and gas production could potentially slow the country’s energy sector reforms and hinder trade opportunities for U.S. refiners and pipeline companies that have ramped up exports to meet growing demand there, according to research firm Morningstar.

Mexican president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced late last month a plan to invest billions of dollars in Pemex, the country’s state-owned energy company, in an effort to  reverse years of declining production. He also reaffirmed his intent to review more than 100 exploration and production contracts awarded to private oil and gas companies since the 2013 reforms, which opened the country’s energy sector to foreign investment for the first time in decades.

Mexico’s energy reforms are enshrined in its constitution, and López Obrador has said that he will he will honor existing contracts so long as they don’t reveal corruption. But Morningstar noted that any effort to scale back the reforms or increase Mexican energy production could jeopardize some $200 billion in outside investments planned for the country’s oil and gas, power, refining and distribution sectors.

Part of López Obrador’s plan involves investing $2.6 billion to upgrade the nation’s six existing refineries as well as building a new, $8.6 billion refinery at the oil port of Dos Bocas in Tabasco. The country’s existing refineries have been operating at less than 70 percent capacity since 2012, according to Mexico’s energy department, requiring the country to import more gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products.

 

Chron / Katherine Blunt / August 6

 

Spanish oil company Repsol enters the Mexican market

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FROM: El Sol de México / The Yucatán Times / 20 April 2018

Seven gas stations in Baja California Sur will start operating soon under the brand name of the Spanish company “Repsol”. These openings are added to others in Mexico City, State of Mexico, Veracruz and Puebla.

In total, Repsol will be opening more than 60 stations, in addition to those already operating in the CDMX.

The company has proposed to invest 8 billion pesos in the opening of 250 service stations per year until 2022. The objective, according to the company, is to reach a market share of 8 to 10% in five years, which includes the opening of gas stations and invest in the development of new oil industry infrastructure.

Of the 11, 925 service stations operating in the country, 22% (2,651) are already working under 39 new brands, as announced by the commissioner president of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), Guillermo García Alcocer

At the beginning of March, Repsol opened its first 10 service stations in Mexico City and already has agreements for the opening of 25 additional stations, in the CDMX metropolitan area.

Im alliance with OctanFuel group, formed by more than 300 local entrepreneurs, Repsol will open their first gas stations in Veracruz and Puebla.

As other companies have done, Repsol will offer Neotech fuels in its stations, a formula that, according to the company itself, will bring the accumulated experience in the most demanding motor competitions, such as the World Motorcycle World, the Dakar or the Formula 1 Championships.

Repsol assures that they have installed new own manufactured pumps in their gas stations, where they have installed the Repsol Safe Station System for volumetric control, to reinforce billing and remote monitoring of the pumps.

In addition to distributing its lubricants, in the area of ​​exploration and production of hydrocarbons six exploration blocks were awarded to Repsol in the oil bidding rounds, in partnership with local companies.

FROM: El Sol de México / The Yucatán Times / 20 April 2018