Eni SPA’s Amoca-3 well in the shallow waters offshore Mexico has boosted the Italian firm’s resource estimate of Amoca field to 1 billion boe in place and prompted a fast-track development plan.
The well encountered 410 m net pay of 25-27° gravity oil in several high-quality Pliocene reservoir sandstones, of which 300 m were found in the deeper sequence of the Cinco Presidentes formation in various cluster levels of Pliocenic age with good reservoir characteristics.
Amoca-3 is in Contractual Area 1, 200 km west of Ciudad Del Carmen in Campeche Bay, 1.5 km southwest of Amoca-1, and 3 km northwest of Amoca-2 (OGJ Online, May 24, 2017). It lies in 25 m of water.
During the production test, 45 m of the Cinco Presidentes reservoir were opened to production and the well flowed 6,000 b/d of 25° gravity oil.
Eni will submit an accelerated and phased development plan in 2017 targeting an early production phase with a plateau ranging from 30,000-50,000 b/d of oil with the start of operations planned for early 2019.
The well has been temporarily suspended but will be used for production at a later stage. The Area 1 drilling campaign will continue with the first appraisal of the Mizton discovery, followed by other wells that will appraise existing discoveries and explore new undrilled pools.
The Area 1 total estimated resource base is now 1.3 billion bbl of oil in place, of which 90% is oil with further upside.
Eni holds 100% interest in Area 1. In Mexico’s first phase of Round 2 bidding last month, Eni was awarded three blocks as operator in the shallow waters of the Sureste basin (OGJ, June 26, 2017, p. 18). Eni, present in Mexico since 2006, established its wholly owned subsidiary Eni Mexico S. de RL de CV in 2015.
