During the bidding rounds, 64 offshore wells were committed, which is equivalent to 20 percent of all the exploration wells in Mexico’s history, with four IOCs authorized to drill as of April 2019. The winning consortiums led by Talos Energy, Pan American Energy, Murphy Sur and PC Cargali have started drilling operations in Mexico’s deep sea. BHP was the first IOC to drill in the country’s deepwaters and has announced it will drill its third evaluation well in Trion in 2Q19. The company began drilling two exploratory wells in October 2018 and continues to develop studies to confirm the volume and composition of the hydrocarbons located in Trion, as well as the viability of the area. Round 1 winners Total and Murphy Sur will soon begin drilling in their respective Etzil-1 and Cholula-1 wells while PC Carigali expects to begin drilling its first well in 2019 with an investment of US$92.8 million.Its Yaxchián well, located in area 4 and won in Round 1.4, has a 29 percent probability of geological success with prospective resources of 893 million barrels of 24° API.
Activity is also gearing up in Mexico’s shallow water blocks, with companies carrying out drilling operations in hopes of meeting President López Obrador’s 2.4Mb/d goal by 2024. Premier Oil, Talos Energy and DEA also hit black gold in 2017 with the Zama-1 discovery, with projected resources of 1.4-2 billion BOE. Since then, the consortium has drilled three appraisal wells, through which Zama-2 confirmed it reservoir modeling. Hokchi Energy is also actively drilling in Mexico’s shallow waters with its exploratory well Acan-1 in block 2 near the coast of Coatzacoalcos. Operators are investing billions of dollars into exploring Mexico’s offshore and are awaiting word on Rounds 3.2 and 3.3 that have been postponed by President López Obrador.