The state-owned company Mexican Petroleums (PEMEX) announced the discovery of large oil reserves in the Ixachi field south of Veracruz , with a 3P volume (proved plus probable plus possible) of 1 billion crude oil barrels .
One year after the drilling of two oil wells in said field, the director of the oil company, Carlos Treviño Medina , said that it was a world-class discovery, and the fourth of its kind at the global scale.
With current prices, he added, the discovery has a value of 40 billion dollars . Considering production costs, the finding could yield a profit of 30 billion pesos (USD$1.48 billion as per the current exchange rate) . “This is a highly profitable field,” he claimed.
He added that the reserves could prove to be even larger, which could be confirmed by the current exploration works in the area.
The Exploration director at PEMEX, José Antonio Escalera , explained that it was the most important oil discovery in the last 25 years .
The director of PEMEX claimed that Ixachi 1 will provide 80 thousand oil barrels a day and 700 million cubic feet a day in 2021 or 2022 . Treviño Medina said that the discovery would allow for the new administration to create a new margin for maneuver in the supply of natural gas.
The finding of the Ixachi reserve is the result of efforts started in 1948 . 70 years later, said efforts led to a great discovery “that will create significant value for our present and future generations,” he added.
In 2017 , the exploratory well Ixachi 1 led to the discovery of a gas condensate reserve, which allowed to incorporate 3P reserves for 366 million crude oil barrels .
However, in order to have certainty on the size of the discovery, the production behavior of the Ixachi 1 well was monitored in 2018, and the exploratory wells Ixachi 1DEL and Ixachi-1001 were drilled to determine the field extension .
As a result, the company managed to detect 3P reserves at the Ixachi field, which could represent an amount of more than 1 billion crude oil barrels –well above the estimates obtained in 2017, which were of 366 million- making it the largest oil discovery in the last 25 years in Mexico.
The gigantic oil field offers strategic advantages, since it is located in an area with sufficient production infrastructure and near the national oil pipeline network, which adds a significant economical value and will allow for the early development of the extraction operation.
According to the Ministry of Energy , Mexico could produce 3.27 billion cubic feet a day , which means that the new production in Ixachil will represent 21.4% of the total extraction in the country.
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