UPDATED: Wintershall Dea makes ‘major oil discovery’ offshore Mexico



Germany’s Wintershall Dea has made what it describes as a “major oil discovery” in shallow waters offshore Mexico, providing a boost to a company that is trying to move away from its former reliance on Russian assets.

The Kan-1EXP discovery was made in Block 30 in the shallow-water section of the Sureste basin. Wintershall Dea operates the licence with a 40% stake and is partnered by Harbour Energy and Sapura OMV on 30% each.

Preliminary estimates suggest the discovery holds between 200 million and 300 million barrels of oil equivalent in place, according to the operator.

“This important discovery at Wintershall Dea’s first own-operated exploration well offshore Mexico is a great success,” Wintershall Dea chief technology officer Hugo Dijkgraaf said.

“It is a significant step to extending our footprint in Mexico contributing to the development of a potential new hub in the shallow waters of the Sureste basin.”

Wintershall Dea’s pre-drill estimates saw a recoverable resource potential of 78.5 million barrels of oil equivalent at Kan-1EXP, with a 40% probability of success. A result showing 300 million boe in place could be consistent with this.

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The well was drilled by the Borr Drilling jack-up rig Borr Ran and reached a total depth of 3317 metres. It found more than 170 metres net pay sandstones of Upper Miocene reservoirs in water depths of about 50 metres.

The Borr Ran has now moved to spud a second well at Block 30, the Ix-1EXP prospect, located about 20 kilometres northeast of Kan-1EXP.

Appraisal plan

The Wintershall Dea-lead consortium will now evaluate subsurface data to prepare an appraisal plan, which is expected to be submitted to Mexico’s hydrocarbons regulator CNH before the end of July.

Kan is the first of two commitment wells of Block 30 and is located about 25 kilometres off the Tabasco coast in water depth of about 50 metres.

Wintershall Dea described a zone of several Miocene discoveries including the Zama discovery and the Polok and Chinwol discoveries, where Wintershall Dea holds working interests.

Zama was discovered by US independent Talos Energy but state-run Pemex took over operatorship due to the presence of a contiguous reservoir on the neighbouring block, requiring unitisation.

Since withdrawing from Russia last year, Wintershall Dea has shifted its strategy towards regional diversification with Norway, Latin America and North Africa to form a triple focus to rebuild production.

With significant asset holdings in Russia before the Ukraine crisis, Wintershall Dea was one of the companies most affected by Moscow’s decision to invade its neighbour in February 2022, and the European sanctions that followed.

The company, wrote down a Є7.3 billion ($7.7 billion) after losing access to Russian assets that were producing a net 350 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and made an adjusted net loss of Є4.8 billion in 2022, despite a year of sky-high gas prices.

In Mexico, Wintershall Dea holds stakes in 10 offshore exploration blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, operating blocks 16 and 17 in the Tampico-Misantla basin as well as Block 30 in the Sureste basin.

Six of these blocks came from the 2018 acquisition of Sierra Oil & Gas, one of which was home to the Zama discovery by Talos Energy.

Wintershall Dea also strengthened its exposure last year through the acquisition of a 37% stake in the Hokchi offshore block operated by Pan American Energy (PAE).

The shallow-water development is a subsea tie-back to two offshore platforms, Satellite and Central, and was brought on stream in May 2020.

Wintershall Dea and PAE are already partners in Block 2, situated a few kilometres southwest of Hokchi.

*An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the discovery as an estimated resource of 200 million to 300 million boe, when the estimate refers to oil and gas in place. The story has also been updated to include additional background on Wintershall Dea’s assets in Mexico.