Pemex boasts Perdido fold belt deepwater oil find

Petroleos Mexicanos said it has the first discovery of crude oil in Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico at an exploratory well in the Perdido fold belt.

Mexican Pres. Felipe Calderon said preliminary evaluation indicates that the Trion-1 well located 350 million bbl of oil equivalent proved, probable, and possible reserves.

Pemex plans to deepen the well to evaluate the Paleocene Wilcox, Calderon said. Trion-1 has been drilled to 16,115 ft in 8,200 ft of water 177 km off the Tamaulipas coast and 39 km south of US waters. The Bicentenario semisubmersible spudded the well in June, he said.

Calderon didn’t name the discovery formation but said it has 320 m of saturated thickness with 18-25% porosity and as much as 250 md of permeability, “just enough to guarantee productivity and an estimated flow of up to 10,000 b/d,” he said.

Calderon noted that less than 2 years had elapsed from when Pemex shot 3D seismic, processed and interpreted it, and made the light oil discovery.

A press release from Pemex added, “This discovery has increased certainty towards the recovery of prospective resources in the Perdido area project which have been estimated at up to 10 billion bbl of oil equivalent, and could potentially allow Mexico to increase its oil production platform in the medium and long-term.”