Delays: Pemex delays Chicontepec well bids
Mexico delays Chicontepec bids
Mexican energy giant Pemex has delayed a 170-well tender for the Chicontepec oil project, saying technical reasons have forced it to push the bid back.
Baker Hughes submitted the lowest bid earlier this year on a contract for the drilling and 170 wells on the Chicontepc paleocanyon, in a region overlapping both Veracruz and Puebla states.
Industry sources said Baker Hughes bid $160.7 million, just ahead of Mexico's Zapata drilling outfit, with $160.9 million, while US giant Halliburton was in third place with $170 million.
Pemex said bidders failed to meet technical requirements and it will roll out the tender again at an unspecified date.
Price factors had pushed other bids out of the reckoning, including Mexico's Perforadora Latina, with an offer of $178 million, followed by Servicios Integrales GSM (Carso) on $191 million, PICO on $196 milllion, and IPC on $207 million.
One industry executive involved in the tender was quoted by Dow Jones Newswires saying it could take up to six months to repeat the process.
Pemex plans to invest $11 billion over the next four years at Chicontepec, making it an attractive target for drillers struggling with a global industry down cycle.
More than 1000 wells per year are planned in an attempt to compensate for declining production on the Cantarell field, but busy contracting activity over the last two has only pushed output up to around 40,000 bpd so far.
Schlumberger and Weatherford International have dominated the bidding a string of Chicontepec tenders held over the last year, but took a back seat in the smaller 170-well tender designed with local companies in mind.