Mexico’s state owned oil company Pemex and Australia’s BHP Billiton have made their partnership official, signing an agreement to jointly develop the deepwater Trión discovery, offshore Mexico, both firms announced today (3 March).
In December, BHP Billiton was selected to be Pemex’s first-ever farm-out partner during Mexico’s first-ever deepwater bid round (Round 1.4), which was broadcast over the internet. The bid included an upfront cash payment of US$62.million and a commitment to deliver a minimum work program that includes drilling one appraisal well, one exploration well and the acquisition of additional seismic data. BHP Billiton estimates that work program to cost $320 million.
BHP Billiton will now hold 60% interest and operatorship of the two blocks containing Trión, AE-0092 and AE-0093.
The signing with BHP Billiton follows a ceremony held earlier this week among Chevron, Inpex and Pemex for their joint venture's win for a block in the Perdido Fold Belt awarded during Round 1.4 back in December.
José Antonio González Anaya said the agreement between Pemex and BHP Billiton was, “a milestone in the [Pemex’s] history, given that, for the first time ever, a field, which was assigned during Round Zero by the Ministry for Energy, will be developed in partnership with a global leader in the industry.”
BHP Billiton’s CEO Andrew Mackenzie called it an honor to work with Pemex and the firm’s Steve Pastor, president operations petroleum, said that the Trión agreement is consistent with its approach to developing high quality deepwater oil prospects.
The signing was hosted by Mexico’s President, Enrique Peña Nieto, and attended by senior executives of both BHP Billiton, Pemex and Mexican regulators including the National Hydrocarbons Commission, and the Ministry of Energy.
Pemex announced last week (27 February) in its Q4 2016 financial report that it expects initial production to flow from Trión in 2023, with a production plateau of 120 MMboe/d to follow in 2025. Total investment in Trión is expected to be around $11 billion.
Trión, discovered by Pemex in 2012, has 3P reserves totaling 485 MMboe, according to Pemex. It is 200km east of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and 40km from the maritime boundary of the Gulf of Mexico, at 2500m water depth.
Image of signing from Pemex.
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Pushing forward (From OE's 2017 Mexico Offshore Supplement)
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