Germany’s Wintershall Dea has made a discovery offshore Mexico with an estimated 300 million barrels of oil equivalent in place, providing a boost to a company that is trying to pivot 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.

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

“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.

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 around 50 metres.

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

Besides the Kan-1EXP discovery, Wintershall Dea is participating in the Pemex-operated Zama development and has a significant stake in the producing Hokchi field offshore Mexico.

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

With significant asset holdings in Russia before the Ukraine crisis, Wintershall 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.

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