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Pemex and Petrobras team up for high-risk deepwater drilling off Mexico
The plan targets Jurassic formations in the Gulf of Mexico that are described as miles deeper and far older than producing U.S. Gulf layers.
Pemex, Mexico’s state oil company, and Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company, are working together to drill prospects in Mexican waters in the Gulf of Mexico, aiming to unlock major resources from deeper Jurassic source rock formations, according to OilPrice citing reporting by Bloomberg.
The target formations are described as miles deeper and about eight times older than the source rock intervals currently producing in the U.S. Gulf, an approach that carries high risks but could pay off if hydrocarbons are found, the article says.
OilPrice notes that Pemex drilled more than 7,800 meters, or about 25,600 feet, below the sea floor and penetrated the Campeche salt layer in an exploratory well in 2018 that was declared unproductive.
The article says Pemex has not publicly shared results from that 2018 offshore effort and has not drilled new exploratory wells in the area since then, but industry experts believe the initial findings may have supported further exploration, prompting the current push.