Italy's Eni and its partner Russia's Lukoil have been awarded rights to Block 28, located in the medium-deep waters of the Cuenca Salina Basin, offshore Mexico.
Italy's Eni and its partner Russia's Lukoil have been awarded rights to Block 28, located in the medium-deep waters of the Cuenca Salina Basin, offshore Mexico.
This new award comes as the outcome of the first international competitive bid round called under “Ronda 3” by the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos, CNH) which offered blocks located in water depths between 20 and 500m.
Eni will be the Operator of the license with a 75 per cent stake in the joint venture, while Lukoil has the remaining 25 per cent. The contract award is subject to approval from the authorities.
The award allows Eni to build up and consolidate a new core area with significant operational synergies in the country, the Italian oil firm said.
In the Cuenca Salina Basin, Eni already holds a 100 per cent stake in Area 1, where it has discovered approximately 2 billion barrels of hydrocarbon in place and has already submitted to the approval of the local authorities the Development Plan (PoD) to exploit the discovered resources. Eni also is Operator of four other exploration and production blocks in the Cuenca Salina Basin: Block 7 (Eni 45 per cent), Block 10 (Eni 100 per cent), Block 14 (Eni 60 per cent), and Block 24 (Eni 65 per cent).
Source: Pipeline ME
