Development of the Burgos basin natural gas fields in northern Mexico by state-owned petroleum company Petroleos Mexicanos will continue as planned, despite the budgetary constraints faced by Pemex this year, said Pemex Director Adrian Lajous (see story, this page).
"Because the production of each well declines rapidly, an intensive drilling schedule is needed to maintain production at Burgos," Lajous said during a recent visit to the region. "It is not possible for us to stop drilling."
The Burgos basin, covering 50,000 sq km in the northern states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León along the Texas border, is Mexico's largest nonassociated natural gas basin.
Mexico has traditionally relied mainly on crude as the country's principal petroleum energy source, but in recent years, the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo has been promoting the increased use of natural gas. Efforts to develop the Burgos basin fields, along with increased recovery of associated gas from oil fields in southern Mexico and expansion of domestic gas processing capacity, are crucial, if the strategy is to be successful.
Lajous said that, because much of the Burgos development work has been financed by private contractors that are undertaking the work, the reduction in the 1999 budget will not have a significant effect on the project. Almost all of the work, apart from the production itself, is being contracted out to private service and supply companies, both domestic and foreign.
Burgos update
In the past 4 years, Pemex has spent over $1 billion in the Burgos basin, drilling 308 production wells and 16 exploratory wells, conducting 6,700 sq km of 3D seismic survey, completing 19 field studies, and revamping surface facilities, Lajous said. As a result, production has increased to 900 MMcfd today from 239 MMcfd in 1994.Pemex aims to raise production to 1.3 bcfd by the end of 2000, and to maintain that level for 7 years before the fields go into decline.
Pemex's original plan for Burgos called for over 1,000 production wells, 59 field studies, and 7,500 sq km of 3D seismic.
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