Chevron to Drill a Deepwater Well Near Coast of Tabasco

Chevron will invest US$120 million to drill a well in the Salina Basin off the shore of Tabasco, in Block 22. Chevron is the main operator with a 37.5% share, the remainder divided between PEMEX and INPEX, and hopes to extract heavy crude.

“We are complying with the work programs to which we committed. We still have this year and the next,” said Evelyn Vilchez, CEO Mexico, Chevron.

She added that oil production is not the best metric to measure the performance of private oil companies in Mexico: people should consider minimum work programs, investment, employment, oil reserves and technological transfers, along with other metrics. Private players reported a 102.750Mb/d production in 2022, less than half of 209Mb/d, the original target. Gas production reached 235MMcf/d, 36% below the AMEXHI target. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador set a goal for private companies to produce 280Mb/d with AMEXHI, though the latter might adjust this figure in 2H23. In January compared to December 2022, private production increased by 0.89%.

Chevron produced 1.7MMboe/d in 2022 and has a market value of $304.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Vilchez is also the President of the Mexican Association of Hydrocarbon Companies (AMEXHI), which previously published a compendium of social contributions made by private oil companies in Mexico. Oil operators developed various strategies to create ties with the communities where they operate. Chevron, for example, designed a social management program for the sustainable development of the coastal strip of Paraiso, Tabasco.

CNH reported that so far, private companies have abandoned more than 20 areas granted for exploration and extraction. According to CNH, these are normal processes as companies decide to focus on higher-value projects. However, since the government canceled bidding rounds and farm-outs, there are no mechanisms left to allocate further contract areas. Some of the companies that have abandoned contract areas include Repsol, Energía, BP, TotalEnergies, Chevron and Exxon. 

According to CNH, the reduction in investments from January to November 2022 has to do with the downward adjustments of company investments. Some players have reduced their projected investments to less than half of the original amount.