Talos Energy divests additional stake in Zama field to Grupo Carso

Talos Energy Inc. and Talos Mexico, its Mexican subsidiary, agreed to sell an additional 30.1% interest in Talos Mexico to Zamajal SA de CV.

In return, Talos will receive $49.7 million in cash at closing, with an additional $33 million due upon first commercial production from Petróleos Mexicanos’s (Pemex)-operated Zama field, for an aggregate price of $82.7 million. 

Unitized Zama field

Talos Mexico holds a 17.4% interest in the field, which was discovered in 2017 by a Talos-led consortium that encountered an 1,100-ft contiguous gross oil-bearing interval in Upper Miocene sandstones on Block 7 about 37 miles offshore the Port of Dos Bocas, Mexico. (OGJ Online, July 7, 2017). 

Zama is a shared reservoir that extends from Block 7 to neighboring AE-0152-Uchukil Asignación in the Cuencas del Sureste, in the Bay of Campeche in Mexico, operated by Pemex. In 2021, Mexico's Ministry of Energy (SENER) designated Pemex as operator of the Zama asset (OGJ Online, July 6, 2021).

At closing, Talos Mexico will be owned 20% by Talos Energy and 80% by Zamajal, an entity owned 90% by Grupo Carso SAB de CV, Mexico City, and 10% by Control Empresarial de Capitales SA de CV, which owns about 24% of Talos's common stock. 

Upon commercial production from Zama, Talos now expects to receive $82.9 million in cash contingent considerations, $33 million from the current deal and $49.9 million to be paid by Zamajal from its 49.9% interest acquisition in 2023 (OGJ Online, May 25, 2023).

The newest transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.

Separately, Talos entered into a cooperation agreement with Control Empresarial De Capitales in which the companies have agreed that Control Empresarial will not acquire additional shares of Talos common stock to the extent that such acquisition would cause the investor group's holdings of Talos common stock to exceed 25%. That agreement is in place through Dec. 16, 2025.