Time is Right for Getting Closer to Customers

The new reality of Mexico’s oil and gas industry demands a sizable effort in pulling all the stops to provide tailor-made products and services to a demanding pool of international players entering Mexico’s market. Other players have expanded their services portfolio, joined strong investment funds and created strategic alliances to collaborate in the growth of the oil and gas sector.

Manuel Mariscal, Director General of O&L Offshore, believes that now more than ever, it is necessary to take a closer approach in addressing the needs of customers, which he says is the first step in building long-lasting relationships and embracing new opportunities. “With more than 15 years of experience working with PEMEX and international operators in shallow-water projects, O&L Offshore is broadening its business niche to onshore, providing services and top-tier technologies coupled with local expertise and knowledge from Mexico’s highest-skilled professionals,” Mariscal says. The company is determined to showcase the comprehensive set of services it can provide to the new face of the industry, such as pipe laying, platform installation, engineering, O&M and oil well intervention.

Mariscal’s previous experience working with PEMEX has given O&L Offshore a clear vision of the oil and gas industry’s requirements, a vision that is driving the company to capitalize on the industry’s momentum to focus on O&M and engineering services to both national and international companies. These new companies have raised the bar for world-class services and require international standards. Local content, logistics know-how, as well as technical and regulatory expertise are in high demand, which Mariscal says is one of O&L Offshore’s advantages. While IOCs can capitalize on the comparative advantages of a long-standing expertise in the industry and a global footprint in mature oil and gas markets, Mariscal finds new entrants more often than not lack the boots-on-the-ground knowledge required to succeed in Mexico. “We provide local expertise to IOCs and help them find tailored technological solutions for the specific needs of Mexico’s oil fields, on a case-by-case basis.” It can prove challenging, however, as Mariscal says each IOC operates with a rigid, company-specific compliance and procurement system. “Mexico’s oil and gas industry, coming from a long-standing tradition of being pricedriven, still finds itself in somewhat of a backlog in creating a similar, standardized system. We need to adapt to their compliance and procurement processes so our proposal provides the highest added value.”

The industry’s recent milestones reflect efficient planning for capital and operational expenditure. This is the case of ENI and the consortium between Talos Energy, Sierra Oil & Gas and Premier Oil in the early bidding rounds executed by CNH (R01-L01 and R01-L02) and the discoveries that followed. For O&L Offshore, these kinds of opportunities represent the ideal platform to highlight its expertise in the Mexican oil and gas market. “International companies have a lot of experience in complex reservoirs around the world and they intend to apply that experience and knowledge to Mexico’s basins, which is where O&L Offshore, with its engineering and consultancy services, can help. Our worldclass experience is locally applied,” Mariscal says.

To get stronger, Mariscal believes companies must also get bigger, and O&L Offshore is open to new business opportunities and strategic alliances. The company has offices in Mexico City and its operational headquarters is in Ciudad del Carmen, so it can keep in close contact with key customers.

In the past four years, Mexico’s licensing rounds have added more than 2.5 billion boe in national reserves, more than 50 new operators and over 100 exploration wells committed offshore and onshore. With the success stories from the Zama and Amoca fields still fresh, Mariscal says there is room for improvement, and an opportunity to get ahead of the game. “We are eager to position ourselves as one of the best service companies in the Mexican market. To accomplish this goal, we are conducting market-penetration activities with the winners from the CNH rounds, while also helping others that are still looking to enter Mexico. The real results will not be apparent for another two years but we are preparing for that now.”