Although a lot of leg work still remains to be done, PetroleosMexicanos, the national oil company of Mexico, plans to drill fivedeepwater wells in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in the next sevento 10 years, according to a petroleum engineer for PemexExploration & Production.

Pemex’s long-term plans include drilling at depths of 200 metersto nearly 1,400 meters, which would be about 66% of Mexico’seastern offshore area.

Rafael Navarro III, a Pemex engineer, told participants at the5th Annual Deepwater Technologies & Developments Conference inHouston last week that Pemex has to do several things to preparefor the ambitious drilling program, including improving itsknowledge of deepwater oil and gas drilling; improve seismicprocessing skills; acquire 3D seismic data in strategic deepwaterzones; and sample and study deepwater sea beds.

The Mexican side of the Gulf of Mexico has not had nearly theexploration or development as the waters on the U.S. side of theGulf. However, Mexican officials have indicated they would like toimprove the economy of the country, and using the exploring oil andgas opportunities offshore has ranked high on their list.

To exploit the deep waters, U.S. analysts have said that Mexicowill have to expand and encourage investments or begin third-partyactivity to take advantage of the opportunities. Most of Pemex’soffshore experience has been in shallow water, and it has onlycompleted about 20 wells in water depths of 100 meters or more.

Pemex also has a long-term strategy to develop a northernoffshore region that would extend along the country’s upper coastto the U.S. offshore boundary that extends from the tip of Texas.That area, according to Navarro, has “great potential” but holdshigh risks because Pemex lacks “knowledge of some oil systemelements.”

Pemex’s deepest offshore well is in the Gulf of Campeche — theChuktah-1, drilled in 1999 in 384 meters. It was done under aturnkey drilling contract by Perforadora de Campeche. That area hasincluded 19 discoveries in less than 100 meters of water to date,and only 10 are now producing.

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