Pemex promotes deepwater farm-out

OREANDA-NEWS. June 16, 2016.  Mexico state-run Pemex is promoting investment in a deepwater block that will become the first big test of its delayed farm-out campaign.

Pemex chief executive Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya was in London this week, meeting with analysts, oil executives and bankers to tout the 5 December auction of Trion that Pemex hopes to develop in a partnership with the private sector.

Trion will be the first of at least 10 planned farm-outs for blocks that Pemex lacks the capital and expertise to develop on its own.

Gonzalez estimated that Trion will require total investment of \\$11bn, and will most likely involve at least two other partners.

The 1,250km2 (483mi2) Trion block lies in 2,500m (8,202ft) of water in the Gulf of Mexico's Perdido Fold Belt, and holds estimated proven, probable, and possible (3P) reserves of 480mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Pemex is unlikely to operate the Trion license, leaving this role to a more experienced, better-equipped partner, Gonzalez said.

Trion was discovered in 2012, and Pemex drilled a first exploration well there in 2014 on the eve of the passage of a major energy reform that dismantled the company upstream monopoly.

The Trion auction will take place in parallel to a separate tender for 10 deepwater blocks that oil regulator CNH is conducting.

Trion and the 10 other blocks, some of which lie close to the maritime border with the prolific US side of the Gulf of Mexico border, mainly appeal to big oil companies. Previous CNH tenders under the country?s historic Round One, have attracted the participation of smaller local and foreign independent oil companies.