Pemex looking for rig to test Talos’ Zama discovery, Premier Oil says

Mexican oil company Pemex is on the lookout for a drilling rig which it will use to test the size of the Zama discovery made by the U.S. operator Talos offshore Mexico in July 2017.

Ensco 8503 was used to drill the original Zama-1 discovery well

While Pemex does not hold a stake in the offshore Block 7, where the giant Zama discovery was made the discovery might extend into an adjacent block, which is owned by Pemex.

In an operational update this week, London-listed Premier Oil, Talos’ partner in Zama, said Pemex was in the process of securing a rig for the Asab-1 well which will test the extent of the Zama discovery on the adjacent block.

To remind, Talos and Pemex last year began talks over a pre-unitization agreement to enable an appraisal program.

Such an agreement is used to define how parties to licenses which contain a common hydrocarbon reservoir will jointly evaluate the reservoir to submit a common field development plan, including a plan for unitization.

Talos to spin drill bit in 4Q

As for the Talos-operated block where the Zama discovery was made, Premier Oil said an appraisal well there is expected to be drilled in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Premier said that Zama partners had filed an appraisal programme for the Zama discovery to the Government authorities in April.

“The objective of the appraisal programme, which comprises two back-to-back wells and one side track, is to confirm the oil-water contact as defined by the seismic flat spot and to prove the detailed distribution of the reservoir,” Premier Oil said.

It has recently been reported that Zama field’s oil in place is expected to be between 1.4 and 2.0 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

While talking about the Pemex side of the rig tendering, Premier Oil did not say what rig Talos would be using, or when the tendering would start. The original well was drilled by the Ensco 8503 semi-submersible drilling rig. However, that rig has recently won a two-well drilling deal with another operator in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, with an estimated total duration of 130 days.

 

Zama-1

As previously said, the Zama-1 well is the first offshore exploration well drilled by a private company in Mexico. The well was spudded on May 21 some 60 kilometers (37 miles) offshore Dos Bocas utilizing the Ensco 8503 drilling rig, and completed in late July.

The entire Zama Field is estimated to hold more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent and is considered one of the largest shallow water fields discovered in the past 20 years.

Talos, the operator of the discovery, holds a 35% participation interest, while Premier Oil and Sierra Oil & Gas as its partners have 25% and 40% participation interests, respectively.

Offshore Energy Today Staff