Chicontepec bounty: Carlos Morales Gil, Pemex E&P boss
Mexico eyes Chicontepec bounty
Mexico’s Chicontepec oil zone holds 139 billion barrels of oil equivalent, Carlos Morales Gil, Pemex’s E&P boss said, citing a new audit of the country’s hard-to-tap bounty.
Morales Gil said in an interview with El Universal newspaper that Mexico can only commit to try and tap 18 billion barrels of oil and gas in the oil area between Puebla and Veracruz states over the next 30 years.
“At the present time, the technology that will allow us to take hydrocarbons from the sub floor doesn’t exist,” he said.
Cantarell is Mexico’s largest oilfield, with an original reserve of 36 billion barrels. Chicontepec then, has 3.8 times more oil than Cantarell, said.
The volume of Mexican reserves -- certified by DeGoyler & McNaughton, Netherland & Sewell and Ryder Scott -- is comparable, in terms of quantity, with half of the proved reserves of Saudi Arabia and 78% of the reserves in Canada.
Morales Gil said that in the Chicontepec production programme, 17,000 wells will be drilled in 29 fields in the oil zone. That estimate breaks down to a rate of 1000 wells per year.
He added that one of the difficulties that will be faced is not having a massive field like Cantarell, “but thousands of small caverns that could be separated between them by metres or kilometres, which will obligate the need for a massive perforation programme.”
Pemex estimates that each well will yield about 100 barrels per day per well.
“If we succeed, it will be a triumph,” he said.
The contract model for Chicontepec is currently in the design stage and the company is currently looking at the possibility of providing different incentives to companies that obtain the future tenders, said Morales Gil.