International Frontier Resources expects workovers to begin this year, with first horizontal well to be drilled in the first half of 2017
International Frontier Resources (ticker: IFR) released an update on its Mexican operations Monday as the company continues the transition period with Mexican national operator PEMEX. At the end of the 90-day transfer of onshore Block 24, known as Tecolutla, IFR’s jointly owned Tonalli Energia will assume full operatorship of the block.
“Field development planning has commenced, which includes additional geological and geophysical evaluation, social and environmental baseline studies, well workover programming, horizontal well planning, production facility design, and permitting,” International Frontier Resources said in a press release. “These efforts will lead to existing well workovers which are anticipated to commence, subject to Mexican government approval, in late 2016 to bring production back on stream, with the first horizontal well to be drilled in the first half of 2017.”
Tecolutla is a 7.2 km2 block in the Tampico-Misantla basin located within the state of Veracruz.
The producing carbonate oil reservoir in the Tecolutla Block is the El Abra formation at a depth of 2,340 meters. 3D seismic has been acquired over the entire Tecolutla Block and seven wells have been drilled into the producing reservoir. Peak production at Tecolutla of over 900 barrels per day (bbl/d) occurred in 1972 from three wells, with one producing well remaining as of December 2014. Tonalli’s experienced operating team plans to deploy advanced carbonate drilling, completion and recompletion techniques in the Tecolutla Block.
In addition, Tonalli has expanded its Mexican team, which includes a field manager with extensive Mexican petroleum engineering and operations experience working for international companies such as Schlumberger and Petrofac.
The company believes there is a lot value to unlock in Mexico. Much of the infrastructure is already in place, and information exists about what resources are in the basin, they just need to be properly exploited IFR President Steve Hanson told Oil & Gas 360®. “The fact that it’s in North America, it has large oil reserves, and it has good infrastructure makes it [an attractive asset]. Mexico is not a country that is in exploration; they’re already in development,” Hanson emphasized.
Source: IFR
“What was apparent to us going down there was that these fields have been underdeveloped and under-explored. In many cases, wells that were drilled back in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s have good 2D and 3D seismic, show good pay zones, and have not been exploited to the degree that they have been in the U.S. and Canada,” Hanson said.
