Eni Gears Up to Increase Its Mexican Offshore Production

Italian oil giant Eni reported that its Area 1 development received a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which can greatly increase the oil produced at the company’s frontrunning project off the shore of Tabasco.

The Area 1 project consists of the Miztón, Amoca and Tecoalli fields, which contain around 2.1 MMboe, most of which is oil. Eni became Mexico’s first private operator to produce oil offshore in 2019. With the 90Mb/d FPSO, called MIAMTE, the Italian operator hopes to boost its production figures in 1Q22. “Its construction involved five construction yards in three different countries including Mexico, where five modules were built. The final integration was done in Singapore and the jacket of the mooring system was fabricated there as well. Overall, works required more than 17 million man-hours, executed at the highest HSE standards. Finally, on Oct. 27, 2021 the MIAMTE FPSO sailed away from Singapore, reaching Mexico after 67 days,” reported Eni.

“Mexico is a core country in Eni’s global portfolio, as we see a strong potential in it as demonstrated by our exploration portfolio. To maintain a solid position in the country, legal certainty and rule of law are key components for our long-term plans,” said Giorgio Guidi,

Managing Director, Eni Mexico, in an interview with Mexico Business. “While there is significant growth in Block 1 from a production perspective, Eni also holds interests in seven exploration blocks in the southern offshore basin. We currently operate five offshore blocks and participate in two non-operated blocks. The exploration drilling results have already led to the identification of important hydrocarbon volumes.”

In August 2021, Eni struck oil at Block 10, in which the company is an operating partner and majority stakeholder. It has a 65 percent ownership of the joint venture together with Lukoil (20 percent) and Cairn Energy (15 percent) through its subsidiary Capricorn. The block is located in the Cuenca Salina Sureste Basin offshore region, approximately 76km off the Dos Bocas port in Tabasco. It is also located a mere 15km away from ENI’s previous oil discovery in Saasken, which was announced at the end of 2020.

Eni’s Area 1 was already producing 20Mboe/d in 2021 and is expected to ramp that up to 65Mboe/d in 2022. The plateau lies at 90Mboe/d in 2025, estimated Eni.

Though President Andres Manuel López Obrador has not given out any new concessions during his term, which began in late 2018, Mexico’s private oil contracts remain standing. As such, private producers continue to yield promising results, with Eni as one of the leading operators in the pack.