(Adds detail and context)
By Ana Isabel Martinez and Adriana Barrera
MEXICO CITY, July 5 (Reuters) - Mexico's Pemex has been
selected to operate the Zama offshore oilfield, according to a
ministerial letter and three sources close to the matter, giving
the state company control over one of the country's most
promising oil projects.
The shallow-water field in the southern Gulf of Mexico is
shared by Pemex and a consortium led by U.S. company Talos
Energy, with both claiming to be best placed to develop
the deposit and its estimated reserves of nearly 700 million
barrels of oil.
Pemex's president and a Talos representative were told of
the decision in a July 2 letter from Energy Minister Rocio
Nahle, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
"We have decided to designate Pemex Exploration and
Production as the operator of the unified area," the letter
said.
The letter stated that Pemex said in June that it had the
financial capacity to develop the project and had nearby
infrastructure for receiving, storing and exporting the crude.
It also said that Mexican energy regulator CNH had confirmed
that Pemex met the technical conditions to develop Zama "in the
short term".
The Talos-led consortium and Pemex had been given three more
months from the end of December to discuss how to estimate each
portion of the field's reserves and decide who would be in the
best position to operate the project.
Talos has vast experience on the U.S. side of the Gulf while
experts have cast doubt on how highly indebted Pemex would
obtain the capital to develop the project.
SPLIT RIFT
Houston-based Talos in May criticised the results of an
initial evaluation by a third-party engineering firm engaged by
all the companies to calculate the reserves split and
participating interests, which it put at 49.6% for the
consortium and 50.4% for Pemex.
"We believe the recent third-party analysis underestimates
relevant data obtained during the appraisal campaign," Talos
Chief Executive Timothy Duncan said at the time.
In June the consortium submitted to regulator CNH a draft of
the development plan for its part of the field, but the final
decision on who would operate the project was ultimately made by
the ministry after the companies failed to reach an agreement.
Neither Pemex, Talos nor the Energy Ministry responded to
requests for comment.
Zama's reserves, which extend into Pemex's neighboring
Uchukil area, were discovered by the Talos-led consortium in
2017 and were one of the biggest oil discoveries in Mexico for
decades.
It was also the first large crude discovery by foreign
companies after energy sector reforms spearheaded by the
previous administration, which Mexican President Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador has taken steps to roll back.
The other members of the consortium are Germany's
Wintershall Dea and Britain's Harbour Energy.
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Adriana Barrera and Marianna
Parraga
Writing by Daina Beth Solomon
Editing by David Goodman)
Harbour Energy (HBR)
