Eni Ready to Drill Offshore Mexico

Eni has signed a production sharing contract (PSC) for the development and exploitation of the Amoca, Miztón and Tecoalli oil fields, located in the Bay of Campeche offshore Mexico.

The deal was signed in Mexico City with the Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos of Mexico (CNH).

Eni was awarded the rights for the development and exploitation of the three fields, located inside the "Area 1", on September 30 following an international tender. The fields are in conventional waters at a depth of 20-40 meters close to shore.

According to the official estimates by the CNH, the combined oil volumes in place for the three fields amount to approximately 800 million barrels of oil and 480 billion cubic feet of associated gas.

Eni will now proceed with the delineation campaign of the fields by drilling four new wells, with the target of identifying a synergic and fast track development plan.

Declining Reserves

Mexico is one of the largest producers of petroleum and other liquids in the world, the fourth-largest producer in the Americas after the United States, Canada, and Brazil, and an important partner in U.S. energy trade. In 2014, Mexico accounted for 781,000 b/d, or 11 percent of U.S. crude oil imports.

Mexico's oil production has steadily decreased since 2005 as a result of natural production declines from Cantarell and other large offshore fields. The rate of total production decline has slowed in the past several years. In December 2013, in an effort to address the declines of its domestic oil production, the Mexican government enacted constitutional reforms that ended the 75-year monopoly of Petroleós Mexicanos (PEMEX), the state-owned oil company.