Just before the start of 2026, Harbour Energy made two significant moves to significantly enlarge its footprint in the United States and Mexico.

1. Harbour acquired LLOG for $3.2 billion, making it a lead producer in the Gulf of Mexico (America)

2. It took over operatorship for the Zama offshore field in Mexico.

Some key reasons for these moves are dwindling growth opportunities in the United Kingdom’s North Sea and an unfavorable fiscal system.

The LLOG acquisition:

  • On 22 December, Harbour announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire privately owned LLOG Exploration Co. from LLOG Holdings for $3.2 billion.
  • This transaction marks Harbour’s entry into the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (America). It will add 34,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to Harbour’s production.
  • Key assets include the Who Dat in the Mississippi Canyon, as well as Buckskin and Leon-Castile in Keathley Canyon. All are operated by LLOG.
  • LLOG will retain its name, as is required by the family of its founder Gerald Boelte, who passed away in 2024.
  • LLOG will become Harbour’s new U.S. Gulf business unit, “in order to preserve and leverage its history and reputation.”
  • LLOG’s current CEO, Philip Le Jeune, will continue to lead LLOG post-transaction.
  • Harbour says the acquisition will create value chain synergies with its operations in Mexico.
  • The deal is expected to close in late Q1 2026.
  • Harbour’s share price dropped 6 percent upon the news of the LLOG acquisition.

By the numbers:

  • The transaction includes $2.7 billion in cash and $500 million in Harbour shares.
  • Harbour expects production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (America) to double by 2028.
  • Harbour will increase its 2P reserve by 271 million barrels of oil equivalent and its preserve life from 7 to 8 years.
  • According to Harbour, LLOG has about 500 million barrels of un-risked resource in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (America), the largest among independent producers.
  • Harbour has a plan to maintain 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day until 2030.

Harbour will operate the Zama field:

  • According to Upstream, Mexican state company Pemex has selected Harbour Energy as the operator for the Zama field.
  • After unitization in July 2020, the Mexican Ministry of Energy appointed Pemex as the operator in 2021 with a majority stake.
  • Pemex is facing financial challenges and finally agreed to yield the operatorship.
  • Pemex holds the majority share (50.4 percent) of the equity, alongside Harbour Energy (32.2 percent), Talos Energy (17.4 percent), and local company Grupo Carso (13.9 percent, through its 80-percent ownership of Talos Energy Mexico).
  • Harbour and Talos are planning a new development concept than the one initially planned by Pemex.
  • The initial estimated cost for the Zama development was $4.5 billion, with a peak capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil and 70.4 million cubic feet of gas per day. It was due to come on stream in 2029.
  • With the new assignment of Harbour Energy as the operator, FID is projected for 2026 or 2027, and first production is likely delayed.

About the Zama Field:

  • The Zama field is located in Block 7 of the Sureste Basin offshore Mexico, which extends into a nearby Pemex-operated block.
  • Zama is the largest offshore field in Mexico, with an estimated 750 million barrels of oil equivalent in reserves at 150 meters of water depth.
  • American independent Talos Energy discovered Zama in 2017; Harbour became a part owner of the asset after its acquisition of Germany’s Wintershall Dea in 2024.

About Harbour Energy:

  • Harbour Energy has a market cap of $3.9 billion and was founded in 2014.

Harbour grew by acquiring a number of assets since its founding, according to the Wall Street Journal. It acquired:

  • Shell’s U.K. assets in 2017 for $3 billion
  • ConocoPhillips’ U.K. assets in 2019
  • Premier Oil in 2021
  • Wintershall Dea in 2024 for $11 billion. Wintershall Dea’s parent company BASF owns 41 percent of Harbour Energy. Harbour has a plan to maintain 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day until 2030.
  • With its entry into the U.S. Gulf, Harbour now has business in five countries: Mexico, Norway, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and the United States.
  • On 8 December 2025, Harbour divested its Indonesian assets for $215 million and exited Asia.

What they’re saying:

  • “The transaction positions us as a leading player in a region with well-established infrastructure, a supportive fiscal and regulatory environment, and opportunities for additional growth,” said Linda Cook, CEO of Harbour Energy.
  • The new Harbour-Talos development plan for Zama could be “somewhat easier, lower-cost, and simples, than the one that Pemex is putting forward,” said Paul Goodfellow, CEO of Talos.

The bigger picture:

  • According to the Financial Times, Cook did not rule out the possibility of moving Harbour’s London listing to the United States after the LLOG acquisition.
  • Cook, the previous head of Shell’s Gas and Power business, has been one of the most outspoken industry leaders around criticizing the U.K. government’s policy against oil and gas industry.