Americas - Projects

Client: PEMEX Exploración y Producción (PEP)

Location: Gulf of Mexico, 30 km offshore from Tampico

Scope: Field development and operations, including subsurface and facilities engineering, drilling, project execution and operations management

The Arenque offshore field was discovered by PEMEX in 1967 and was the first exploration well in the area to be successfully tested in the San Andres formation.

Petrofac was awarded a Production Enhancement Contract (PEC) in 2012 for the Arenque field – becoming the first foreign company to operate a shallow water field in Mexico for more than 70 years. Asset operations were successfully transitioned to Petrofac in 2013.

The Arenque field

The Arenque field is located in the Gulf of Mexico, 30 km offshore from Tampico, and covers an area of approximately 2,035 km². It has initial oil in place of approximately 1.2 billion barrels with a current recovery factor of around 11%.

The existing facilities include:

• Three offshore platforms, typical shallow-depth water jacket design
• Fourteen production wells
• Four 12” diameter subsea pipelines
• Separation and metering facilities onshore

The field is producing 4,100 bopd. We plan to improve the recovery factor and increase production from the core area of the field. There is also considerable upside potential in the rest of the block.

We are working to migrate the Arenque PEC to a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) which we aim to complete by the end of 2018.