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The Helping hand for IOCs Venturing Into Mexico

Victor Oliveros - WorleyParsons Group
Business Development Director

STORY INLINE POST

Sun, 07/01/2018 - 09:20

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Q: What impact have the licensing rounds had on WorleyParsons and its business lines? 

A: Opportunities have increased considerably since the licensing rounds started, although they have differed in operability flow. Our potential has increased at a good pace despite things moving slowly due to the recent market conditions and the political climate in Mexico. The challenges regarding deepwater blocks remain, but we feel confident in our ability to support those operators in finding commercially viable alternatives to those normally considered. For example, WorleyParsons has in-house designs, such as the low-motion Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO), which constitutes a highly advanced product that unifies facilities under one single solution. 

Q: How would you classify your experience in Mexico and where do you see opportunities arising?

A: Our experience has definitely been positive. We see many opportunities in the midstream segment based on the infrastructure and production development in shallow waters and the need to transport that production to onshore storage terminals. Mexico has extensive shallowwater infrastructure but we can provide more value for operators by handling the complex parts of the projects, which is one of our strengths. In onshore, we still see a few opportunities for pipeline interconnections between the US and Mexico for handling natural gas production, where we would like to replicate our experience in recent projects in the Gulf of Mexico and provide engineering and project management services for these developments. 

Q: What do you look for in a partner and what is the importance of these partnerships to your operations?

A: We look for a strong track record in project execution and safety. Our partners are well-funded companies that understand the market’s challenges and meet the high standards our customers demand. We work closely with our customers to make sure projects reach their full potential and we expect the same from any of our partners. 

Most IOCs that have offices in Mexico tend to follow their operations from their headquarters; however, we hope this trend will shift as they start to transfer their teams to Mexico, giving us an opportunity to offer our project-management services. We actively work with local companies to offer a full range of solutions to our customers and will continue to look for opportunities to expand the range of services we can provide. So far, we have established some partnerships in the offshore engineering arena with local companies and we expect to expand this range of alliances. 

Q: What are WorleyParson’s main advantages over its competitors? 

A: One key capability we offer is the fact that we are a technology-neutral partner. We do not do facility installations or have a large construction presence so we can truly recommend the best options for our customers in terms of quality, price and competitiveness and offer unbiased technical solutions, too. Additionally, our global reach allows us to provide unmatched capabilities and lessons learned from our in-house network of subjectmatter experts.

Q: What are your expectations from the development of offshore fields and how do you create value here? 

A: There is a lot of relevant experience on the US side of the Gulf that could apply to Mexico. Fields and blocks tend to be pretty big in Mexico, resembling some of the experience that we have in countries such as Australia or Thailand. On the Mexican side of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, we perceive similarities to the US and we think infrastructure in this segment will develop quickly. The US can be a precedent for these kinds of projects. Mexican authorities moved quickly in awarding these blocks and incentivizing knowledgesharing among bidding companies so WorleyParsons, through Advisian (its consulting arm) is now able to support regulators as they shift their focus to setting more aggressive time frames for new offshore developments. 
 

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