On January 10, 2023, the Ministry of Energy (“SENER”) issued the 2022 “Review to the Implementation of the Five Year Bidding Plan for Exploration and Extraction of Hydrocarbons (2020-2024)” (“Five Year Plan Review” or “Review”). The Five Year Plan Review is intended to analyze the development of the Plan as well as inform about the areas that can be included in the Bidding Rounds.
Production
According to the Five Year Plan Review during the first semester of 2022 Mexico produced 1,626.4 million barrels of crude oil equivalent (BOE). 89.4% came from Assignments to Pemex and 10.6% from Exploration and Production Contracts.
92% of the national production of crude oil came from mature fields. Additionally, 65% of production is concentrated in 15 Assignments.
By location, the extraction of crude oil is mainly concentrated offshore (87.5%) and the rest onshore (18.5%)[1].
English Translation for Keys: Entitlements, Bidding Rounds, PEMEX Associations, Migrations, Total
Bidding Areas
According to the Review, Mexico has 12,722.9 million barrels of crude oil equivalent (MMbpce)[2] in prospective resources and 772.1 MMbpce in reserves. The total area with oil fields (inventory of areas) is about 157,845.2km2 and can be divided in to three categories: conventional onshore, shallow and deep waters.
This means, that according to SENER, there are still 180 areas to be awarded either directly to Pemex or trough bidding rounds. In 176 of such areas, exploration and production activities are expected, while in 4, only production activities are expected to extract remaining oil. Additionally, 112 of such areas are located offshore and 68 onshore.
This Review shows that there are still many opportunities in the E&P sector in Mexico. Should the government issue new bidding rounds, there will be offshore and onshore (conventional fields) opportunities.
To this date, the Ministry of Energy has not hinted any intention to resume the tenders; nonetheless, these reports confirm the existence of opportunities. We will closely follow the reports issued by SENER and inform in due course.
[1] consulted at: https://base.energia.gob.mx/EvPlQu/ev22PQ20-24AreasContractuales-vF_100123.pdf . Page. 36
[2] consulted at: https://base.energia.gob.mx/EvPlQu/ev22PQ20-24AreasContractuales-vF_100123.pdf . Page. 5
The full Review may be consulted in Spanish at:
https://base.energia.gob.mx/EvPlQu/ev22PQ20-24AreasContractuales-vF_100123.pdf