27 September 2014, News Wires – BHP Billiton and Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) on Friday signed an agreement for the exchange of oil and gas technical knowledge, information, experiences and practices.
BHP Billiton Petroleum and Potash President Tim Cutt said that Mexico offers “considerable opportunity” following the recent reform of the nation’s energy sector, and that the company is excited about the deepwater and extension of the Paleogene play into the Perdido play.
BHP can offer PEMEX its “considerable” expertise in deepwater design and development, including the construction of the Shenzi and Neptune platforms in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and the Pyrenees and Stybarrow floating production storage and offloading vessels, Cutt said in a Sept. 25 press release.
“Shenzi is an excellent example of what we can do and the deep capacity we possess within our offshore organization,” said Cutt. “Shenzi continues to be one of the great success stories in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico – whether it’s time from discovery to first production, drilling costs, safety, uptime of approximately 95 percent or sustaining production levels.”
Shenzi is located on Green Canyon Blocks 609, 610, 653 and 654 in 4,300 feet of water, according to SubseaIQ. Shenzi, which has estimated recoverable resources of 350 to 400 million barrels of oil equivalent, lies in the Western Atwater Fold Belt area on the geological trend where the Mad Dog, Atlantis, and Neptune fields were found.
BHP is operator of Shenzi with 44 percent interest. Repsol and Hess are partners with 28 percent interest each. The company can also offer PEMEX rapid access to offshore drilling capacity, including the Deepwater Invictus (UDW drillship), which arrived in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in May, which can be rapidly deployed with an experienced drilling team, Cutt said.
According to Rigzone’s rig database RigLogix, the rig is under contract to BHP Billiton from June 2014 to June 2017 at a day rate just under $600,000. In late July, Deepwater Invictus started drilling for BHP at the Neptune field at Atwater Valley Block 618 in 6,266 feet of water.
“We are confident that we are one of the lowest cost and best drillers in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico,” Cutt noted. “We have proven we can build projects better and faster than most operators, and our offshore facilities have some of the highest operational uptimes and safety records anywhere in the world.” “We look forward to sharing our technical knowledge and experience with our Mexican partners.”
– Rigzone
