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(Recasts, adds comment from Talos in paragraph 5 and other
details)
By Ana Isabel Martinez and Adriana Barrera
MEXICO CITY, July 5 (Reuters) - Mexico tapped state-owned
Pemex to run a major shared oil find over the private consortium
led by a U.S. oil company that first discovered it, in the
latest win for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's
nationalistic energy policies.
The disputed deposit, believed to hold some 700 million
barrels oil, is thought to straddle two neighboring blocks in
the southern Gulf of Mexico, one belonging to Pemex and the
other to a private consortium of oil companies led by
Houston-based Talos Energy.
The Mexican government awarded Pemex the rights to operate
the potentially lucrative offshore Zama discovery in a letter
from the energy ministry dated July 2. It decided in Pemex's
favor even though a Talos-led consortium won the rights to drill
in a competitive 2015 oil auction, announced the discovery of
the Zama well that gave name to the deposit two years later, and
has argued that it should run the project.
It was the first major oil discovery by foreign companies
after reforms spearheaded by Mexico's previous administration
opened up the country's energy sector to foreign and private
producers, which Lopez Obrador has taken steps to roll back.
Talos said in a statement it was "very disappointed" by the
ministry's decision, adding that it would explore all legal and
strategic options to maximize value for its shareholders from
Zama.
Talos and its partners have invested more than $250 million
in the project, drilling four exploratory wells so far, while
Pemex has yet to drill on its side of the shared deposit.
U.S. officials have in the past highlighted Talos' legal
rights to the project, and some have suggested it could be
subject to a challenge under the investment protections of the
USMCA, the trade pact between the United States, Mexico and
Canada.
The other members of the Talos-led consortium are Germany's
Wintershall Dea and Britain's Harbour Energy.
SPLIT RIFT
The energy ministry's letter cited Pemex's technical
know-how and nearby oil infrastructure as reasons giving it an
edge, and cited a third-party study that concluded that Pemex's
block holds a slight majority of the oil below.
Last year, Talos commissioned a study by an independent
appraiser that concluded the Talos block held about 60% of the
deposit, while the Pemex side held the remaining 40%. Pemex has
used that same appraiser in the past.
The field, located in water at a depth of 550 feet (168
meters) is significantly deeper than most of Pemex's
shallow-water projects in the southern Gulf.
"We have decided to designate Pemex Exploration and
Production as the operator of the unified area," the letter
said.
The letter backed the heavily-indebted Pemex's claims from
June that it had the financial capacity to develop the project
and had nearby infrastructure for receiving, storing and
exporting the crude.
Talos and Pemex had been negotiating for more than a year
over which side would run the project, as well as over a
preliminary split of the project's reserves.
Talos has significant experience developing projects at
similar depths on the U.S. side of the Gulf.
In May, Talos criticized the results of an initial
evaluation by the third-party engineering firm engaged by all
the companies that calculated an initial reserves split of 49.6%
for the consortium and 50.4% for Pemex.
Neither Pemex nor the energy ministry responded to requests
for comment.
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Adriana Barrera and Marianna
Parraga; Additional reporting and writing by David Alire Garcia;
Editing by David Goodman and Paul Simao)
