Gulf of Mexico Archives - NRGI Broker Expertos en Seguros para el Sector Energético

Mexico Plans Next Bidding Round For Energy Opening By End-July

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The next bidding round in the opening of Mexico’s oil and gas sector will be called by the end of July and consist of 15 shallow water blocks for exploration and extraction in the Gulf of Mexico, Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell said.

Coldwell announced the round, denominated 2.1, at an event in the northern city of Monterrey on Wednesday.

The following round, or 2.2, would be called by the end of the summer and comprise 14 onshore blocks for exploration and production in the gas-rich Burgos basin in the north of the country as well as in southeast Mexico, Coldwell added.

Mexico ended the oil and gas monopoly of national oil company Pemex at the end of 2013 to open up the industry to more private sector investment. However, the auctions of oil and gas blocks have been complicated by a sharp drop in crude prices.

Crude futures on Wednesday hit their highest levels in 2016, beyond $50 per barrel. Coldwell said it was very hard to forecast whether the recovery in prices would last

Copy right: Rig Zone

Mexico’s Pemex must take Minimum 45 pct Stake in Deep Water Venture

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Mexico’s oil regulator on Wednesday said state-owned oil company Pemex must take a minimum 45 percent stake in its first-ever proposed joint venture with would-be private partners to develop oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico’s deep waters.

Global oil majors are widely expected to bid in the December auction to help develop the Trion light oil field in the Perdido Fold Belt just south of Mexico’s maritime border with the United States.

Companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil operate lucrative developments in nearby U.S. waters while Mexico has yet to achieve commercial production on its side of oil-rich Perdido due to a lack of technical expertise to tap such fields.

The call for bids to partner with cash-strapped Pemex on Trion follows the constitutional energy reform enacted in 2013 which promised to reverse a decade-long slump in crude production by luring new players to explore for and produce oil.

The regulator said the Trion joint venture will be bid out in the form of a license contract, which is similar to a concession, and will include two operators, one of which must have between a 30 to 45 percent stake in the project.

Interested bidders have until Sept. 15 to pre-qualify for the auction by meeting both financial and technical minimum requirements, while the final version of the contract and bid terms will be published on Sept. 30.

The license contract to partner with Pemex on the project will be awarded on Dec. 5. Mexico will also auction 10 separate deep water fields, including four that surround Trion, in December.

Under the terms of the energy reform, Pemex can partner with companies in exploration and production projects, but rather than being allowed to pick its partners, they will instead be selected by an auction run by the oil regulator, known as the National Hydrocarbons Commission.

The partnership will allow Pemex to share the investment needed to successfully develop the field, the company’s first major deep water oil project.

The Trion field holds some 480 million barrels and will require about $11 billion worth of investment.

The field covers about 483 square miles (1,250 square km) and is located under more than 8,202 feet (2,500 meters) of water.

Copyright: Rig Zone

Shell Midstream Partners buys stake in three Gulf of Mexico pipelines

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Houston based Shell Midstream Partners has acquired minority stakes in three pipelines located in The Gulf of Mexico from BP for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition is said to be a move to consolidate its corridor pipeline strategy in the region for Shell Midstream.

The company has acquired 10% stake in the Proteus Oil Pipeline Company, 10% in the Endymion Oil Pipeline Company and 1% in Cleopatra Gas Gathering Company.

Shell Midstream Partners CEO John Hollowell said: «Our sponsor, Shell Pipeline Company is currently building the Mattox pipeline to serve the recently sanctioned Appomattox platform.

“Proteus and Endymion will connect the Mattox pipeline to onshore markets, creating a new corridor line, which will transport all of Appomattox’s volumes once it comes online toward the end of the decade.”

Proteus, a 71-mile crude oil pipeline of 425,000 bpd capacity, gives access to the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico from the Thunder Horse and Thunder Hawk platform to the Proteus SP 89E Platform.

Hollowell added: «Proteus also connects to the Thunder Horse platform which is a key development field for BP and ExxonMobil. In addition to Thunder Horse, Proteus is also currently connected to the Noble Energy, Inc. operated Thunder Hawk platform.”

Endymion, an 89-mile crude oil pipeline of 425,000 bpd capacity, also gives access to the Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico. With access to multiple markets, Endymion is connected to LOOP Clovelly storage.

A 115-mile gas gathering pipeline in Southern Green Canyo, Cleopatra is connected to the Holstein, Atlantis, Neptune, Shenzi and Mad Dog platforms. It has access to Atwater Valley, Lund and Walker Ridge areas in the Gulf of Mexico.

Howell concluded: “This acquisition will deepen our footprint in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, an active area with a number of discoveries currently under appraisal.»

Shell Midstream revealed that the collective acquisition sum was equivalent to nearly 7.7 times its forecasted annual average adjusted EBITDA attributable to the purchased stakes during 2017 and 2018.

The amount was financed through borrowings under its revolving credit facilities and the acquisition is likely to be instantly accretive to shareholders, said the energy and petrochemicals consortium.

Shell Midstream Partners’ board of directors of its general partner have approved the acquisition terms.

Copyright: Energy and Business Review

BHP Billiton ticks $2.8 billion Gulf oil deal

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BHP Billiton has approved its share of the $US9 billion ($11.8bn) Mad Dog 2 offshore oil project in the US Gulf of Mexico, six weeks after operator BP ticked off on the project.

For BHP, its 23.9 per cent stake in the 140,000 barrels per day platform will set it back $US2.2bn ($2.8bn) and offset some of its declining oil production from 2021-22 when oil starts to flow.

“Mad Dog Phase 2 is one of the largest discovered and undeveloped resources in the Gulf of Mexico, one of BHP Billiton’s preferred conventional deepwater basins,” said BHP’s Houston-based petroleum president Steve Pastor.

“It offers an attractive investment opportunity for BHP Billiton and aligns with our strategic objective to build our conventional portfolio through the development of large, long-life, high-quality resources.”

BHP’s petroleum unit is focused on conventional oil after $US20bn of US shale acquisitions in 2011, and nearly as much spending since, have failed to deliver expected returns because of subsequent falls in oil and gas prices. Mad Dog 2 was originally expected to cost $US20bn but after going back to the drawing board three years ago, the joint venture, which also includes Chevron, has shaved more than 50 per cent off the costs.

According to Deutsche Bank estimates, the Mad Dog stake is worth $US866m of value for BHP, which is also expanding in the Mexican waters of the Gulf.

Shortly after BP approved Mad Dog, BHP beat BP in a $US1.2bn bid to partner Mexico’s national oil company, Pemex, in the Gulf, making it the first company to do so since the Mexican industry was nationalised in 1938.

The deal on the known 485 million-barrel Trion oil discovery, about 30km from Mexico’s sea border with the US, delivers BHP a near-term development opportunity in partnership with Pemex, which the Mexican government estimates could cost $US11bn.

First production at a daily rate of 120,000 barrels a day by 2022 would be possible by the joint venture — BHP (60 per cent operator) and Pemex (40 per cent).

Mexico undid Pemex’s oil industry monopoly in December 2013 under a reform agenda designed to bring in foreign capital and expertise to accelerate the pace of development, particularly for the backlog of projects in the deepwater oil fairways of the Gulf of Mexico. Macquarie estimates that Trion will cost $US11bn to develop. The bank forecasts that BHP’s petroleum production will slide from 132 million barrels of oil equivalent this financial year to 113.4 million in 2020-21. BHP is due to report first-half profits on February 21.

RBC is expecting BHP to log underlying net profit of $US3.11bn, up from $US514m a year earlier and its interim dividend to fall to US14c a share, down from US16c.

Copyright: The Australian

BHP inks oil deal with Pemex Mexico

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BHP Billiton has signed a contract with Pemex Exploration & Production Mexico to finish work on the Trion discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

BHP secured a 60 per cent interest in the resource in December last year with Pemex retaining the remaining 40 per cent stake.

Trion has an estimated recoverable resource of 45Mmboe and, after full appraisal, is set to become one of the top 10 fields discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in the last 10 years.

The new agreement includes the delivery of a Minimum Work Program, which consists of drilling one appraisal well, one exploration well and the acquiring additional seismic data.

The signing ceremony was held at the Official Residence of the president in Mexico City on Saturday, attended by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie, and Pemex director general José Antonio González Anaya.

Mackenzie said the agreement was an historic moment for Mexico and the start of a new partnership between Pemex and BHP.

“It is an honour to be the first foreign company to partner with the people of Mexico in developing their significant petroleum resources for mutual benefit,” Mackenzie said.

Peña Nieto said the partnership with BHP will bring greater development for the country.

BHP president operations petroleum said the agreement aligned with the company’s plans to conduct oil exploration and development of deep water oil resources.

‘‘We have a long history as a top operator in the Gulf of Mexico and we are excited to bring our operational expertise to the partnership with Pemex,” Pastor said.

Sharon Masige / Oil&Gas Australian mining

March 6, 2017

Mexico signed seven deepwater exploration and production contracts with private oil

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Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) presided over the signing of seven deepwater exploration and production contracts on Friday, bringing an end to the country’s historic Round One series of oil auctions.

The contracts were for blocks located in the Gulf of Mexico: three in the Perdido Fold Belt, a 40,000 sq.-kilometer (15,450 sq.-mile) area located in the northwestern part of the Gulf; and four in the Saline Basin, situated in the southern part of the Gulf.

The blocks were all awarded in early December.

The seven contracts are in addition to one signed last week by Mexican state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), American oil supermajor Chevron Corp. and Japan’s Impex that marked the first time Pemex had formed a consortium to compete for a block under a 2013 energy-sector overhaul ending the company’s nearly eight-decade monopoly.

Each of the contracts has a 35-year life span, but they can be extended for additional periods of 10 years and then five years.

In the Perdido Fold Belt, a unit of China National Offshore Oil Corporation signed contracts for Block 1 and Block 4, while a consortium made up of the local unit of France’s Total and the United States’ Exxon Mobil Exploration signed one for Block 2.

In the Saline Basin, a consortium made up of Norway’s Statoil, the United Kingdom’s BP Exploration and Total’s local unit signed contracts for Block 1 and Block 3.

A consortium made up of a unit of Malaysia’s Petronas, PC Carigali Mexico Operations; and Mexico’s Sierra Offshore Exploration signed a contract for Block 4, while a consortium made up of US energy company Murphy Oil’s local unit, the UK’s Ophir Energy, PC Carigali and Sierra Offshore inked another for Block 5.

Mexico’s energy sector, which has suffered a steady decline in crude output for more than a decade, will receive a major boost from oil production giants as a result of the Round One auctions, Energy Secretary Pedro Joaquin Coldwell said.

The companies that signed the contracts “are fully qualified and have the capital and experience to undertake projects of these dimensions (in which) there is no room for experimentation or error,” Coldwell said.

The seven blocks encompass a total area of 17,000 sq. kilometers and contain prospective hydrocarbon reserves estimated at 2 billion barrels of crude oil equivalent.

03-13-2017

CERAWEEK-Mexico eyes U.S. market for Trion project’s crude, natural gas

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A pipeline network with spare capacity could allow Mexico to export oil and gas from its flagship offshore Trion project to the United States, the head of Mexico’s oil regulator said on Thursday.

The deep water Trion development, with prospective reserves of almost 500 million barrels of oil, was farmed out in December by state-run Pemex to Australia’s BHP Billiton , which became the operator of the $11 billion project.

The ailing Mexican oil firm, which kept a 40-percent stake, jointly shares for the first time the risks and rewards of a potentially lucrative project with a private producer.

Although a development plan has yet to be submitted, the consortium could use a cheaper and quicker option of getting production to the United States by using pipelines that serve the neighboring Great White field on the U.S. side of the Gulf of Mexico, Juan Carlos Zepeda, head of the national hydrocarbons commission (CNH), said on the sidelines of CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

The Great White field, which is operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Chevron Corp, is producing around 70,000 barrels per day (bpd), leaving 50 percent available capacity in a crude line and a gas line connected to the U.S., Zepeda said.

«There are only 39 kilometers (24 miles) from the Trion field to the Great White’s facilities,» Zepeda told Reuters, noting that building a pipeline to Mexico’s shore would be more expensive and would take more time.

The pipelines from Great White field on the U.S. side of the Perdido Fold Belt, the world’s second-deepest oil and gas production hub, are operated by U.S.-based Williams Companies as part of its 1,370-mile (2,200-km) network of gas and crude lines in the Gulf of Mexico.

Other options for Trion production include building pipelines to the nearest ports, most likely Mexico’s Tampico or Brownsville in Texas, or setting up a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility to handle the output.

Another block awarded to Pemex and China’s state-controlled offshore oil producer CNOOC, which in December gained a foothold in Mexico’s deepwater, is even closer to Great White.

«The (Pemex and BHP) consortium must submit an appraisal in the coming 180 days, including test wells, to confirm the field’s extension and then a development plan must also be submitted,» Zepeda said.

Early production of light crude from Trion is expected for 2023, Pemex’s director Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya said earlier this week in Houston.

«For Pemex this is historic deal. For 80 years, Pemex never had a partner with whom to share risks or equity,» he said.

The project had been put aside in early 2016 due to the company’s budget cuts and resumed nine months later as part of Mexico’s long-waited oil reform.

MORE LICENSES COMING

The CNH, which oversees contracts and runs oil auctions in Mexico, is offering 15 blocks for exploration and production in shallow water under profit sharing agreements and 26 onshore blocks under licenses, with results expected in June and July.

A new deep water bidding round in the coming months is expected to offer blocks mostly in the same basins of Perdido and Salina. As in previous offshore auctions, licenses will be offered by the government to operate these blocks, Zepeda detailed.

The last bidding round in the short term will be the first for so-called unconventional resources.

Onshore blocks with shale oil and shale gas reserves close to the Eagle Ford basin in Texas will be offered, as well as areas in the Tampico Misantla formation, which is estimated to hold some 35 billion barrels of oil, mostly in shale rock.

Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston. Additional reporting by David Alire in Mexico City; Editing by Marguerita Choy / Reuters

March 9

Exxon, Petrobras Said to Have Discussed Strategic Partnership

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Sabrina Valle

“Exxon Mobil Corp. and Petrobras have held talks on a strategic partnership that could involve multiple assets in Brazil and overseas in different segments of the industry, similar to the $2.2 billion deal signed with Total SA in December, said people familiar with the conversations.

Such a deal could give Exxon access to oil fields and infrastructure in Brazil while state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA could gain from Exxon’s expertise in production, refining and distribution, the people said. The company clarified in a statement Tuesday that there is no ongoing negotiation aiming at a strategic alliance with Exxon.

“Petrobras stresses, however, that it’s constantly in touch with companies in the oil and gas sector to evaluate opportunities and share experience,” the company said in the statement.

International oil companies are taking a closer look after Brazil eased nationalist regulations and opened the market to more competition. Carla Lacerda, Exxon’s country chief, said earlier this month that the U.S.-based oil giant sees great opportunities in Brazil. Last week, Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente met in Houston with both Lacerda and BP Plc’s head of Latin America, Felipe Arbelaez, the people said, asking not to be named because the discussions were private.

Arbelaez confirmed that he and Parente had talked in “a number of meetings.” He said that with the policy changes being undertaken by Brazil’s government, “all companies are reviewing their Brazil strategy.”

Lauren Kerr, an Exxon spokeswoman, declined to comment. “As a matter of practice we don’t comment on rumors or speculation,” she said.

In December, France-based Total agreed to buy stakes in Brazilian oil fields and energy infrastructure in a $2.2 billion deal that is expanding its presence in Latin America’s largest economy.

Total’s Deal

That agreement included stakes in the Iara and Lapa offshore prospects, and gives Petrobras the option to buy into a field in the Gulf of Mexico, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said at the time. Total also acquired 50 percent of two thermoelectric plants in the Bahia area and the right to use a regasification unit in the city. It may study more purchases from Petrobras, Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said when the deal was announced.

Other European oil producers have also moved to grab a share of the deep-water discoveries that are driving Brazil’s production growth. Statoil ASA bought Petrobras’s stake in the Carcara find last year in a $2.5 billion deal, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc expanded in the pre-salt region through its acquisition of BG Group Ltd.

In recent months Michel Temer’s government has removed Petrobras’ exclusivity to operate in the pre-salt, and eased buy-in-Brazil requirements for platforms and equipment. Only one pre-salt field, the giant Libra discovery, has been auctioned in this decade, and under terms that guaranteed Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as it is formally known, control of operations.

While single wells in the pre-salt region can produce more than 40,000 barrels a day, among the most productive in the world, Exxon previously had a rare case of exploration failure in at a concession it abandoned in 2012.

«We are here to say we are going to try again,» Lacerda said at an event in Houston last week. «Exxon Mobil sees great opportunities in Brazil.»

9 de mayo de 2017 12:43 GMT-5 9 de mayo de 2017 23:01 GMT-5

U.S. oil prices rise as Gulf platforms shut ahead of hurricane

en Reforma energética de México

Reuters / Henning Gloystein / September 3

* Storm Gordon to make U.S. landfall as hurricane

* Brent dips as India takes steps to continue Iran imports

* Global oil markets have tightened since 2017 – Barclays

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (Reuters) – U.S. oil prices edged up on Tuesday, rising back past $70 per barrel, after two Gulf of Mexico oil platforms were evacuated in preparation for a hurricane.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $70.04 per barrel at 0034 GMT, up 24 cents, or 0.3 percent from their last settlement.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Monday it had evacuated and shut production at two oil platforms in the northern Gulf of Mexico ahead of the approach of Gordon, which is expected to come ashore as a hurricane.

International Brent crude futures, by contrast, lost ground, trading at $78.10 per barrel, down 5 cents from their last close.

This came as India allowed state refiners to import Iranian oil if Tehran arranges and insures tankers.

Many international shippers have stopped loading Iranian oil as U.S. financial sanctions against Tehran prevents them from insuring its cargoes.

Mirroring a step by China, where buyers are shifting nearly all their Iranian oil imports to vessels owned by National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC), this means that Asia’s two biggest oil importers are making plans to continue Iran purchases despite pressure by Washington to cut orders.

CHANGING MARKET

Britain’s Barclays bank said on Tuesday that oil markets had changed since 2017 when worries about rising supply were more evident.

“U.S. producers are resisting temptation and exercising capital discipline, OPEC and Russia have convinced market participants they are managing the supply of over half of global production, the U.S. is using sanctions more actively, and several key OPEC producers are at risk of being failed states,” Barclays said.

Crude oil “prices could reach $80 and higher in the short term”, the bank said, although it added that despite these developments global supply may exceed demand next year.

For 2020, Barclays said it expects Brent to average $75 per barrel, up from its previous forecast of just $55 a barrel.

French bank BNP Paribas struck a similar tone, warning of “supply issues” for the rest of the year and into 2019.

“Crude oil export losses from Iran due to U.S. sanctions, production decline in Venezuela and episodic outages in Libya are unlikely to be offset entirely by corresponding rises in OPEC+ production due to market share sensitivities,” the bank said.

“We do not expect oil demand to be materially impacted in the next 6-9 months by economic uncertainty linked to U.S./China trade tensions and recent concerns over emerging markets,” he added.

BNP Paribas expects Brent to average $79 per barrel in 2019.