Fossil Energy – Drilling
Chevron will invest US$120 million to drill a well in the Salina Basin off the shore of Tabasco, in Block 22.
Chevron is the main operator with a 37.5% share, the remainder divided between PEMEX and INPEX, and hopes to extract heavy crude.
“We are complying with the work programs to which we committed. We still have this year and the next,” said Evelyn Vilchez, CEO Mexico, Chevron.
She added that oil production is not the best metric to measure the performance of private oil companies in Mexico: people should consider minimum work programs, investment, employment, oil reserves and technological transfers, along with other metrics. Private players reported a 102.750Mb/d production in 2022, less than half of 209Mb/d, the original target. Gas production reached 235MMcf/d, 36% below the AMEXHI target. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador set a goal for private companies to produce 280Mb/d with AMEXHI, though the latter might adjust this figure in 2H23. In January compared to December 2022, private production increased by 0.89%.
Vilchez is also the President of the Mexican Association of Hydrocarbon Companies (AMEXHI), which previously published a compendium of social contributions made by private oil companies in Mexico. Oil operators developed various strategies to create ties with the communities where they operate.
