Mexican state energy company Pemex is in talks with Carlos Slim which could see the billionaire tycoon help bankroll two of the country’s most promising crude oil and natural gas fields, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The negotiations, which have not been previously reported, indicate Slim’s growing clout in Mexico’s struggling energy sector, expanding his business empire which already spans telecommunications, banking, insurance, retail, and hospitality.
Slim, one of the world’s richest people, has built close relations with the leftist government and avoided the public clashes that occasionally broke out between former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and big business.
Talos Mexico, in which Slim is a majority investor, Harbour Energy, and Pemex are in advanced discussions to jointly operate Zama, a deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico, a senior government source said.
The tycoon is also eyeing participation in the country’s most important onshore natural gas field, Ixachi, the government source and two other sources said.
The Ixachi-1 well is located 72 km south of the port of Veracruz and near Cosamaloapan. The reservoir has high potential based on its geological, petrophysical, and structural characteristics, original gas and condensate volumes, reservoir rock area and thickness, and original static pressure.
While Pemex is the current operator of Zama, which has yet to start producing, the source said talks were leaning towards a joint operating agreement, meaning Pemex would cede some control – a rare model for the state company.
Click here to read the complete, original article by Adriana Barrera and Stefanie Eschenbacher on Reuters
Source: Reuters
