Mexican Alfa Tie-up with Pemex for Onshore Exploration

Mexican conglomerate Alfa He is interested in participating in association with the state oil company Pemex Exploration Projects in fields on earth, aunque también hacerlo the rule in shallow waters, dijo el viernes el director de Energía the company, Raul Millares.

Pemex announced last week that he will seek partners in three mature onshore fields that together contain 2P reserves (proven and probable) for about 250 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe).

The state said it will too for extra heavy oil fields in shallow waters Ayatsil-Tekel-Utsil in the southern Gulf of Mexico, with 2P reserves of 747 MMboe.

"We have more preference or vocation to be more exploration in land, which is called 'onshore', we believe there are no plans to revise interest (...) but do not rule out other areas particularly on the issue of shallow water that requires another type of specialty, another kind of experience, "Millares said.

Seeking partnerships with private firms announced by Pemex, which involves 10 projects total, came after the Energy Department announced last assigned to the fields in the oil called Round Zero, derived from the major energy reform week held in Mexico in over 70 years.

Alfa already working with Pemex in so-called "incentive contracts", a small opening of the oil sector to private capital product of energy reform in 2008, in two areas: San Andrés y Tierra Blanca, in the state of Veracruz, bordering the Gulf of Mexico, awarded in 2012.

These two contracts will be migrated to one of the most attractive types of contracts approved energy reform: utility and shared production and licensing, in addition to the service.

ROUND ONE

Alfa added that participate in Round One of invitations to tender for areas of unconventional hydrocarbons, where he has extensive experience in operations shale gas and shale oil (shale) in the South Texas Eagle Ford formations and Edwards Trend.

"It's definitely an area that is familiar to us," Millares said in an interview with Reuters.

"You have to understand the geological information that will be available to review these opportunities in the area of ​​what is called Tampico-Misantla" he added.

The Energy Department proposed blocks of 120 square kilometers (km2) in the Tampico-Misantla Basin unconventional for Round One and they have estimated about 8,927 mmboe prospective resources.

Besides opening in the oil sector, the reform opened the entire electricity sector to private investment and seeks to increase the production of renewable energy.

The executive added that Alfa plans to achieve generation capacity between 1,000 to 1,200 megawatts (MW) of electricity in cogeneration projects in five years and the company is also looking to renewable geothermal and wind generation in the short term.

"We believe that Mexico is an area where there is much chance of geothermal, we like", Millares said. 

(Reporting by Adriana Barrera and David Alire, editing by Ana Isabel Martinez)