Mislabeled Fields Offer Opportunity

Q: How did the downturn in oil activities in the last few years change COMESA and does this benefit its clients?

A: In the past, COMESA had a really strong relationship with PEMEX while also supporting its onshore seismic activities. Five years ago, we launched a very aggressive program to diversify our business and our client base. We started working with CFE and with private companies to provide geoscience studies for the geothermal, mining and water-prospecting segments, and also have taken part in seismic processing and interpretation activities in countries such as Brazil and Bolivia.
We are completely transforming ourselves, changing our state of mind, because the market has completely transformed as well. It is not only the rules of the game that have changed, but the entire game, and it will never go back to how it was when PEMEX was the only relevant operator in Mexico. Now that the oil and gas industry is rebounding, we are deeply involved in providing services to new companies that won blocks in Rounds 1.3, 2.2 and 2.3. To further expand our market opportunities, we have also started to complement our capabilities by providing integrated solutions, from the beginning to the end of the exploration-production value chain, including seismic data acquisition, processing, interpretation, reservoir characterization and project evaluation. To be able to provide all these services, we are looking to create strategic alliances with companies that complement our capabilities. 

Q: What added value does COMESA provide the Mexican oil and gas industry?

A: COMESA has a deep knowledge of the Mexican market and industry. We know almost every oil basin in Mexico because of both seismic acquisition programs executed for PEMEX and the many former PEMEX employees who are now working with us. Combining this experienced talent with state-of-the-art technologies and our very own processing center, makes us today the only service company in the country able to provide design, acquisition, processing and interpretation of seismic data at Mexican locations. Some operators entering Mexico have created their own geoscience department by investing in hardware, software and human talent. COMESA has also worked with these operators because even though they have strong financials, they still need people with deep knowledge and experience working in the local geology. 

In summary, COMESA offers to its clients state-of-the-art equipment related to seismic, deep knowledge of Mexican basins and highly-experienced staff to support new operations in Mexico and help them achieve their goals.
 

Q: How is COMESA working to help PEMEX recover its previous production levels?

A: We are very interested in working with PEMEX, particularly in the fields it was assigned during Round Zero. We know that most of these fields only have been developed with primary production techniques, and there are many other EOR techniques that can be implemented, such as using tertiary recovery technologies. In Mexico, many fields have been mislabeled as mature. The real fact is that many of these fields do not require cutting-edge technologies to raise their production but simple standard EOR procedures, such as water injection. Mexico has around 600 fields, both onshore and offshore, and while only 50 fields provide around 70 percent of the 2 million b/d that PEMEX produces, approximately 80 percent of these 600 fields have been marginalized for investment because they were improperly declared mature fields. Some of these fields remained PEMEX assets after Round Zero and COMESA is eager to participate with PEMEX to revitalize and increase its production. PEMEX is focusing on its best opportunities to be efficient. We want to collaborate with PEMEX and help it do just that. One of our goals is to take part in the farm-in activities that PEMEX will launch in November 2017.