Italian multinational firm Eni has received approval from Mexico’s National Hydrocarbon Commission for its $1.9-billion development plan covering Area 1 in the shallow waters of the Campeche Bay.
The company expects to make a final investment decision (FID) on the project in this year’s fourth quarter. Consisting of the Amoca, Mizton, and Tecoalli fields, Area 1 is estimated to hold 2.1 billion BOE in place, 90% of which is oil.
The phased development will involve an early production stage utilizing a wellhead platform at the Mizton field. Production will be sent onshore via a 10-in. multiphase pipeline and treated at a Pemex-operated facility. Early production startup is planned for first-half 2019, plateauing at 8,000 B/D of oil.
Full-field production, expected in late 2020, will utilize a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel. Area 1 production will plateau at 90,000 B/D of oil beginning in 2021. Two more platforms will also be installed at the Amoca field and one at the Tecoalli field.
Eni says it has already approved some initial investments for long-lead items and the start of construction on the Mizton platform.
A production test on the Tecoalli-2 well, announced by Eni in December, confirmed “the excellent production capabilities of the Orca formation and good quality of the oil” found in the reservoir, which was 30 °API with no carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulfide.
Eni’s Amoca-2 well, drilled in early 2017, was the first well from an international operator following the implementation of Mexican energy reform. The firm was awarded the Area 1 block in the second tender of Mexico’s Round One auction in 2015.
Including its 100%-held Area 1, Eni has rights to six blocks in Mexico’s Sureste Basin, serving as operator of each one. Eni says it plans to drill two exploration wells on recently awarded blocks in 2019.
Elsewhere in the shallow waters of the Sureste Basin, Talos Energy and its partners plan to spud the first appraisal well of the Zama discovery in the fourth quarter. An FID for the project is expected to be reached around late 2019–early 2020, with the launch of production coming in 2022.