Offshore staff
MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s oil regulator has canceled a tender for a joint venture with state oil firm PEMEX in the deepwater Maximino-Nobilis area, according to a Reuters report.
The National Hydrocarbons Commision (CNH) said the auction to find a partner for PEMEX to develop the Maximino-Nobilis area, which lies in the Gulf of Mexico near the US border, had been canceled as there had been no interest.
According to Reuters, PEMEX officials blamed the cancellation of the auction on weak investor appetite due to competition from recent auctions in Brazil and low oil prices.
The auction had been scheduled to take place on Jan. 31.
The joint ventures, also known as “farm outs,” are a central pillar of the government’s efforts to attract investment to Mexico since Congress opened up the country’s long-closed oil and gas industry to private investment in 2014.
CNH had previously said that it expected the first commercial barrels from Nobilis-Maximino to come by 2024, with peak output of 174,000 boe/d and 265 MMcf/d of natural gas coming online in 2026.
PEMEX has drilled two wells in Maximino at a depth of 3,000 m (9,840 ft), discovering super light crude. In September 2016, PEMEX said it had found super light crude in its Nobilis-1 well, also at some 3,000 meters.
12/11/2017
