Mexico approves independent offshore driller

MEXICO CITY, September 14, 2016 – Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) approved Pan American Energy’s offshore drilling programme yesterday.

The first well, which will be drilled 27 km north of the port of Dos Bocas, on the Gulf of Mexico’s southern edge, will start drilling this October, at a cost of USD 41.7 million.
This is the first time a well will be drilled in Mexican waters by a non-Pemex company since the 2013 energy reform that put an end to Pemex’s monopoly on the country’s upstream sector.

Drilling is to take place in the shallow-water Hokchi field, which was awarded to Hokich Energy, a consortium of Argentina’s Pan American Energy and E&P Hidrocarburos y Servicios in September 2015. Known as contractual Area 2 during the Round One tender launched in July 2015, the 40-square-kilometre block comprises 334 million barrels of remaining oil reserves.

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