TN PETRÓLEO

Mexican state oil company Pemex has started deepwater E&P operations on the Holok-Temoa asset in the southwest marine region, the company said in a statement.

The projects planned for the area include drilling exploratory wells in search of new oil and gas fields as well as the development of the Lakach gas field.

Lakach features the Lakach-1 well, which was drilled in 988m water depth, the deepest so far for Pemex.

The Lakach-1 well showed 96% dry gas and 4% condensates.

"The first step that`s being taken is to drill definition wells to provide certainty to the area," the statement said.

Pemex also will start additional well drilling plus construction of onshore and offshore infrastructure to help extract discovered reserves, the statement said.

The area`s development calls for the construction of a 45km pipeline from a collection center on the ocean floor at a depth of some 800m to the Lerdo de Tejada station in Veracruz state, where hydrocarbons will be processed.

Aside from Lakach-1, Pemex has recorded three other discoveries in water depths exceeding 500m: Nab-1 (680m, extra-heavy crude), Noxal-1 (934m, gas), and Lalail-1 (805m, gas).

The Chelem-1 well was drilled to a depth of 810m, but came up dry.

The Lakach, Noxal and Lalail fields have 3P reserves of 1.8Tf3 (51Bm3).

The company is drilling the Tamil-1 well in depths of 666m.

Pemex`s E&P division PEP recently declared void an international tender for geotechnical and geophysical studies that were to include the Lakach field.

Although the Lakach discovery is in relatively shallow waters compared to other global deepwater E&P operations, the field`s development marks a significant step toward tapping Mexico`s potentially vast offshore reserves.

Mexico`s prospective hydrocarbons resources are 53.8Bboe including 55%, or 29.5Bboe, in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico basin, according to energy ministry Sener`s 2007-16 oil forecast.