CNH Approves Changes to Perseus Fortuna’s Contract

The National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) approved Perseus Fortuna’s request to modify their Evaluation Program for Contract CNH-R01-L03-A9/2015. The 21.978km² onshore field is located in Macuspana, Tabasco. The project’s production is currently focused on wet gas, gas and condensate at 1.14Mcf/d as of March 2022, with a further 92Mb/d of oil produced. The modification was mainly needed due to a series of technical and economic discrepancies from the original plans, which have resulted in a reduced estimation of the number of wells to be drilled.

The Mexican independent oil company made the discovery of crude oil in the community of Belén in 2019, having been granted exclusive control to explore the area following a 2015 bidding round. Perseus workers found oil by accident when drilling under a house in search of water. The CNH reported at the time that the block possessed a 3P oil volume of 7.3MMboe and an accumulated production of 2.1MMboe. Since then, Perseus has drilled 29 wells, of which three are producing, eight are shut-in and 18 are plugged. 

Perseus foresees an investment of US$3.93 million to continue the project, which will include the drilling of an additional well, six major workovers, three minor workovers as well as two PVT analyses. One less well will now be drilled as a result of the modification. The operator now expects to recover 25Mboe of oil condensate and 504MMcf of natural gas.

While the change received the go-ahead from the CNH during its 38th Special Session, Commissioner Alma América Porres Luna asked the regulatory body’s technicians to supervise the activities programmed by Perseus to ensure they are fulfilled. Given the first round of the contract expires in August 2022, the race is on to complete this stage of the project, as Porres Luna noted: "This gives them time to make the major repairs that they still need, in addition to drilling another well in this period, something we did not see happening in the original timeline...It is a tight schedule, but hopefully it will be completed," she said.