Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) did not receive any offers to partner up for its shallow water Ayin-Batsil area in the Gulf of Mexico in a live auction held by the country’s National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH) this morning (4 October).
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Ayin-Batsil. Map from Pemex. |
CNH declared Ayin-Batsil as abandoned just after 9 a.m. CST at the live auction. Pemex is still hoping to gain partners in two onshore fields later today.
“This will be a lesson for Pemex in terms of adjusting their expectations to what the market is willing to pay. Trion vs Ayin-Batsil - $$$,” Pablo Medina, senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie Latin America upstream research tweeted this morning.
Pemex was looking for a 50:50 partnership for Ayin-Batsil, with the partner taking operatorship.
Ayin-Batsil is off Tabasco state in the eastern province of Salina del Istmo in the Campeche basin, and consists of an area of 1096sq km, in 80-170m water depth.
The area is expected to hold about 359 MMboe of undeveloped 3P reserves of heavy crude.
According to Pemex, Ayin is the most relevant field with about 60% of total 3P reserves, and Baytsil with about 20%.
The Alux and Makech fields could potentially be developed as subsea tiebacks to Ayin-Batsil.
There are three exploratory opportunities that could offer about 224 MMboe of prospective resources, which include Ichal with 73 MMboe; Ken with 81 MMboe; and Chelpul with 70 MMboe.
Between 1988 and 2015, there have been 10 wells drilled in Ayin-Batsil, consisting of eight wildcats and two appraisal wells.
In December 2016, Pemex held its first-ever farmout opportunity, with BHP Billiton winning the bid to develop the Trion deepwater field. The two made it official several months later in March.
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