A vein of natural gas 1,200 meters deep in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico has attracted the attention of Mexican magnate Carlos Slim.
This week, a delegation representing the richest man in Mexico met with personnel from the parastatal, Pemex, to evaluate the possibilities of the Lakach field, according to
Reuters
.
The field, discovered in 2006 by the oil company, has seen its development slowed down on at least two occasions, due to its low profitability compared to the large exploitation costs.
According to official figures, the investment for this deposit is around 1,192 million dollars.
Due to these million-dollar figures, only a businessman of Slim's stature could take charge of him so as not to let him die.
Despite these failed attempts, Pemex – the most indebted oil company in the world, with liabilities of more than 106 billion dollars – insists on finding in Slim or some other private sector a source of resources to start this field located 93 kilometers north. southeast of the City of Veracruz and whose reserves are estimated at 847,000 million cubic feet.
At the time of its discovery, it was classified as the most important non-associated gas field in the territorial waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Last November, the promise to extract natural gas from Lakach ended abruptly with the conclusion of the contract between Pemex and the American New Fortress Energy (NFE).
A year earlier, the American company had committed to investing some 1.5 billion pesos in this project to reactivate the exploration of the field discovered in 2007 by Pemex, but which had been abandoned by the same parastatal in 2016 due to high costs.
During the period that Pemex was in charge of its development, it disbursed some 1.4 billion dollars.
Despite the continued turbulence in the project, Pemex sent the modification of its plan in Lakach to the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) last March.
In this document, the oil company adjusted its investment costs upwards and expanded the exploitation horizon.
Thus, the regulatory body confirmed that the disbursement to launch this vein will be 1,192 million dollars and estimated an operating expense of 636 million dollars over a horizon of 2022 to 2034. According to the CNH, 82% of The investment will be for development activities, the remaining 8% for the intervention of wells, operations and the rest contemplates the dismantling of the facilities.
Luis Miguel Labardini, partner at Marcos y Asociados, explains that given the close relationship between the Mexican magnate and the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, it is not surprising that the businessman has been one of the first names to resonate within Pemex to seek a partnership.
"Pemex has never put the investment that is needed, what happens is that the price of natural gas in that part of the world, on the side of the United States, where the cheapest natural gas is obtained, forces these projects, To be profitable, they have to be very competitive,” he explains.
The expert in energy issues elaborates that beyond self-consumption, this vein of natural gas in exploitation could be imported, via the isthmus of Tehuantepec, to Asia, its value is multiplied.
“Surely, this is what Carlos Slim is seeing, not in local consumption, but in sending it to the east and there it is a great deal because the prices are three or four times what it costs here,” he mentions.
Labardini celebrates that the Government is open to the opportunity to find a way to revive this old project from almost a decade ago, in order not to lose the investment already made of 1.4 billion dollars and not to waste such a relevant field in reserves of natural gas.
“It does not matter if it is Pemex or a private company that exploits this field, the important thing is that it is exploited and the economic income is transferred to the Mexican State.
It may be Pemex, but for now Pemex already has many other things and has to concentrate its investment on projects where it is very competitive, for example, in shallow waters,” he says.
The disbursement of the owner of América Móvil and Grupo Carso on energy projects has been on the rise in the last stretch of the Government.
Through his companies, Slim has been participating in the Zama, Ichalkil and Pokoch oil fields.
Although the company was contacted for more details about this meeting and their vision for the project, they declined the request.
The interest of the López Obrador Government in relaunching a vein of natural gas occurs with the decline in natural gas production by Pemex and given the dependence that Mexico has on inputs imported from the United States.
If in January 2020 Pemex achieved the milestone of producing 5,000 million cubic feet per day, last January the figure dropped to 4,780 million cubic feet per day, according to official figures.
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