Mexican oil firm Pemex said yesterday Aberdeen’s subsea sector could help it to unlock its deepwater offshore fields.
Senior staff from the state-owned firm, which has full control of Mexico’s oil and gas industry, said at the moment there was no deepwater subsea infrastructure, but it was looking to develop its substantial deepwater reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, which it said contained about 27billion barrels of prospective resources, with plans for new production agreements with foreign operators.
Speaking on a visit to the Granite City, which took in subsea technology firms Nautronix and Bowtech, Pemex vice-president for business development Sergio Guaso said Mexico was attempting to create the right conditions for foreign investment in its oil and gas sector.
In the past, its oil and gas sector has been largely closed to outside investment, but the country sees it needs help for work on harder-to-access oil and gas reserves, including deepwater and shale.
Mr Guaso said: “The main objective is to create the conditions to bring international capabilities to Mexico for a set of different opportunities that represent different technological and management challenges.”
He added that Pemex was planning to launch a licensing round to foreign firms for deepwater fields later next year.
Mexico’s oil production has slipped as its Cantarell field, one of the largest oil fields in the world, has gone into decline.
To boost production, it has increased investment in exploration and from 2011 started bringing in overseas firms including Petrofac and Schlumberger to rejuvenate brownfield developments.
Mr Guaso said Pemex was the world’s fourth largest oil producer, with 3.6million barrels of oil equivalent per day, but added: “The petroleum contractual and fiscal framework remains rigid and limited compared to others worldwide even though Mexico is an open economy.”
He said Mexico recognised this needed to change. Pemex is also looking to foreign companies to help it to develop a major onshore shale play, called Chicontepec.
