09 June, 2021

Mexico's Oil and Gas: History, New Discoveries, Opportunities, and Energy Reform

 

The goal of this e-symposium is to review the status of the Mexican upstream sector, and to provide a review of the most prolific and prospective areas in Mexico, with a focus on opportunities for international participation, given the upcoming energy reform in Mexico.

This e-symposium reviews the status of the Mexican upstream sector, and provides a review of the most prolific and prospective areas in Mexico, with a focus on opportunities for international participation, given the upcoming energy reform in Mexico. The geological framework and main producing formations for each of the major producing regions will be included, starting with the Golden Lane, and including Tampico (Misantla Basin), Chiapas – Tabasco, Offshore Campeche, Cantarell, deepwater Gulf of Mexico (Catemaco and Perdido Fold Belt provinces), and unconventionals (north, northeast, and east-central Mexico). The presentation will also discuss the Energy Reform and what it means to both Mexico and international participants.

Topics include:
  • Petroleum geology of Mexico
  • Individual basins: history and producing formations
  • History of exploration
  • Golden Lane
  • Tampico
  • Chiapas-Tabasco
  • Offshore Campeche
  • Cantarell
  • DW GOM (Catemaco and Perdido Fold Belts)
  • Unconventionals
  • Technology / techniques
  • Energy Reform
CEU Questions

For CEU Credit, please email responses to the following questions to . Your answers can be very brief, one paragraph, and in the form of bullet points

  1. Describe the main productive areas of Mexico.
  2. Describe the history of production in Mexico, and the recent decline in production.
  3. Discuss the meaning of the different types of contract models that are now possible with the Reform.
  4. Describe the size of the resource base that can be explored and developed: gas and oil.
  5. Identify some of the 12 basins with petroleum systems and the 6 that produce oil and gas.
  6. Identify the fields / groups in:
    1. mature fields
    2. heavy and extra heavy oil fields (offshore)
    3. giant gas fields (deepwater)
    4. discoveries in the Perdido area (deepwater)
Study Materials
Original Presentation Slide Deck Download
Deepwater Field Development
Pemex		 Download
The Structural Evolution of the Golden Lane, Tampico Embayment, Mexico
Wilson, H. H., Journal of Petroleum Geology. 10(1), pp 5-40, 1987.		 Download
The Offshore Golden Lane: New Outline of Opportunities from the Integration of Geological and Geophysical Data
Galicia, Jose G. - Transactions GCAGS: 2000		 Download
Petrophysical Characteristics, Depositional Systems, and Model of Geological Evolution in the Golden Lane Carbonate Sequences
Chen, J. J., Aduna, C. A., Sanchez Lu, F., Patino, J., Olivella, M. - GCAGS Transactions. 51: 2001		 Download
Petroleum History of Mexico: How it Got to Where It Is Today
Guzman, A. (2013) - Search and Discovery #10530		 View