MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras & Pemex consider deepwater G. of Mexico project

Brazil's government owned oil and gas corporation Petrobras has invited Mexico's oil monopoly Pemex to join it as a minority partner in a deepwater exploration project on the US side of the Gulf of Mexico revealed Samir Awad Petrobras executive manager for the Americas, Africa and Eurasia.

"Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli proposed that Petroleos Mexicanos, (Pemex) take a stake of 10 to 15% in a venture to drill in offshore blocks in the Perdido area near the Mexico border", said Awad. Pemex Chief Executive Officer Jesus Reyes Heroles said Mexico Pemex would have to set up a U.S. company in Delaware to invest in the venture without breaking Mexican laws that bar it from forming such partnerships, indicated Awad. "It remains a step for the near future" said Awad. "If Pemex would like to join Petrobras outside of Mexico, we are still open about this". The partnership would have been worth about 1 billion US dollars, according to sources close to Petrobras. Awad described the offer as being made "some time ago on a very informal basis...without any particular block or area in mind". Awad said Pemex replied it was not possible to accept such an offer in the short term but was hopeful it would consider teaming up with Petrobras in the mid and long term to work in the Gulf of Mexico. The partnership would give Pemex, which initiated deepwater exploration in 2006, an opportunity to work alongside Petrobras, which drilled its first well in water more than 1,000 meters deep in 1992, Awad said. Petrobras, which extracts most of its oil in Brazil offshore, drills in countries such as Nigeria and Angola, is scheduled to receive two drilling rigs in 2009 for a six-year contract to explore in the Perdido Foldbelt, Awad said. The region is located more than 350 kilometers south of Galveston, Texas. Mexico's constitution reserves the right to explore, extract and process crude oil for Pemex, which was created in 1938 from the expropriated assets of UK and US oil companies operating in Mexico. Last August, Pemex and Petrobras signed a research-sharing agreement. Pemex provides information on natural-gas field exploration and Petrobras shares deepwater exploration research. Pemex officials have praised the way Petrobras with a majority government stake has managed to blend with private corporations and private investors. Mexico, the third-largest crude exporter to the US, needs to produce in waters more than 500 meters deep to make up for a decline at Cantarell, the world's third-largest oil field. Last year, Cantarell production fell 18% to 1.47 million barrels per day. Pemex has failed to make up for the decline with increased output at other offshore fields, causing 2007 production to drop 7% to below the 3 million barrels a day benchmark. Pemex crude production peaked in 2004 at 3.38 million barrels. Pemex estimates it has almost 30 billion barrels of oil in Gulf of Mexico deep waters. Deepwater drilling has gone slowly, the company has less than a dozen exploratory wells, because of Pemex's lack of experience, limited investment budget and dearth of rigs, Energy Minister Georgina Kessel has admitted. Pemex is particularly concerned that Royal Dutch Shell has plans to produce as much as 130.000 bpd in 2010 from the Perdido region and could end extracting crude from the Mexican side of the field. Pemex has also signed research agreements with Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA. Pemex has one foreign partnership: Pemex and Shell jointly own the Deer Park refinery in Texas. In related news a Petrobras press official said Brazil's federal police are investigating the theft of confidential information. The company is already taking measures regarding the theft, but cannot give further details in order not to harm the investigation, the official said. "Equipment and materials containing information important to the company was stolen from installations of a company providing specialized services to Petrobras" the company said in a note.The oil firm said it has copies of all the stolen data, but didn't provide any further information. A hard drive and two notebooks were stolen while being transported from a research platform to Petrobras' Campos Basin headquarters in Macae north or Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian Web site Terra said earlier Thursday. The hardware contained confidential information on research that led to recent discoveries of massive new oil and gas fields in ultra-deep waters off the Brazilian coast, Terra said, without giving sources.