PEMEX and Other Partners to Invest US$9 Billion in Zama Field

PEMEX, Talos Energy, Harbor Energy and Wintershall Dea have committed to invest over US$9 billion in the development of the Zama oil field. 

The National Hydrocarbon Commission (CNH), the governing body overseeing the oil and gas sector, has authorized Pemex Exploration and Production (PEP) along with the integrated consortium of Talos Energy, Harbor Energy and Wintershall Dea to proceed with the development plan, work program and associated budget for the field.

Situated in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Tabasco, the Zama deposit spans an area of 26.7km2 and holds approximately 850 million barrels of crude oil equivalent. The approved plan aims to commence the extraction and development of hydrocarbons in the field, targeting a 3P reserve estimated at 675 million barrels and 262 billion ft3 of gas. 

According to López Obrador, production at the Zama oil field is now expected to start in 2025 and reach its peak in 2029. López Obrador anticipates that daily extraction will range between 150Mb/d and 180Mb/d of light crude oil. Although the current administration will not oversee the production phase, López Obrador emphasized that significant quantities of high-quality Olmeca crude oil will be extracted starting in 2025.

PEMEX and its partners have proposed drilling and completing 46 wells, carrying out 215 minor repairs, constructing three pipelines, two platforms and a separate battery, as well as abandoning eight wells. PEMEX PEP aims to retrieve 625 million barrels of oil and 2.43 billion cubic feet of gas through an investment of $4.541 billion,

The plan entails transporting the extracted hydrocarbons from the Zama A platform to the Zama B platform via a pipeline and subsequently routing the gas to the Cactus Gas Processing Center and the oil to the Dos Bocas maritime terminal.

Recently, PEMEX also announced it would invest an additional US$5.5 billion to implement a secondary recovery strategy for the discovery located off the coast of Campeche bay, as reported by MBN. The updated plan aims to increase production to 150Mb/d by 2030 through a US$12 billion investment.