Italian oil company Eni said Friday it had made a new discovery on the Yatzil exploration prospect in Block 7, located in the mid-deep water of the Cuenca Salina in the Sureste Basin, offshore Mexico.
According to preliminary estimates, the new finding may contain around 200 million barrels of oil (MBoe) in place.
Yatzil-1 EXP is the second commitment well of Block 7 and the eighth successful one drilled by Eni in the Sureste Basin.
It is located approximately 65 kilometers off the coast, and 25-30 km away from other discoveries.
Eni used the Valaris DPS5 semi-submersible drilling rig to drill the well in a water depth of 284 meters. The well reached a total depth of 2,441 meters.
According to Eni, Yatzil-1 EXP discovered in excess of 40 meters of net pay sands with good quality oil in the Upper Miocene sequences with excellent petrophysical properties confirmed by an extensive subsurface data collection.
"The successful result comes after the Saasken and Sayulita discoveries in Block 10 and confirms the value of Eni’s Mexican asset portfolio, contributing to the potential synergic cluster development of several prospects located nearby," Eni said.
The Block 7 Joint Venture is composed by Eni, which is the operator with a 45% stake, Capricorn (30%) and Citla Energy (25%).
In Mexico, Eni is currently producing more than 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) from Area 1 phased development project, which is expected to be completed by 2025.