The Italian oil company ENI discovers a field with reserves of up to 200 million barrels in Mexican waters

The logo of the Italian oil company Eni on a gas station in Rome.Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters

The Italian oil company ENI announced on Monday the discovery of a new oil field in Mexican waters that, according to its preliminary estimates, may have reserves of between 150 and 200 million barrels.

ENI assures in a statement that there is a 55 meter layer of good quality oil with a production capacity of up to approximately 3,000 barrels per day.

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The well is the seventh successfully drilled by the Italian company in the Cuenca Salina area, approximately 70 kilometers from the coast.

The well was drilled to a depth of 325 meters, reaching a total depth of 1,758 meters.

ENI shares block 10 of which the field is part with Russia's Lukoil and Britain's Cairn Energy.

ENI, headquartered in Rome and present in the region since 2006, has stated that Mexico "is a central country in the company's future organic growth strategy."

The company currently produces more than 20,000 barrels of oil per day, but expects to increase to 65,000 barrels a day in 2022 and reach a peak of 90,000 in 2025.

Private participation in the Mexican oil sector experienced a significant boom as a result of the energy reform of former President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2013, when the so-called “oil rounds” were established to assign exploration areas to private companies and take the burden off the heavily indebted Pemex, whose production had begun to decline.

In a shift in energy policy, the current government has canceled the bidding mechanism for fields and has opted to "rescue" Pemex by allocating more resources and reducing its tax burden.

In addition, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has frequently criticized private oil companies for an alleged lack of results and low production.

The energy ministry awarded the management of the Zama field, one of the most important recent finds with up to 800 million barrels in reserves, to Pemex in July, despite having been discovered by a US company.

Following the decision, Talos Energy said it was contemplating legal action.

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