Mexico Gearing Up for Chicontepec Pay Dirt

Mexico announced plans for a 170-well tender at Chicontepec, a giant oil region that spans three states in northern Mexico. Pemex plans to pump 700,000 bpd from Chicontepec by 2017

From the article:

Pemex said it will pick the winning bid on April 7 with work starting in early May and lasting two years. Pemex often runs into bureaucratic delays in assigning large contracts.

Late last year Pemex announced two Chicontepec drilling tenders, each for 500 wells, that have attracted interest from oil-services giants Schlumberger Ltd. ( SLB), Halliburton Co. (HAL) and Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT).

Mexico's urgent need to bring new oil fields into production has made the country a bright spot for oil-services firms during a year when most oil companies are cutting their investment budgets due to low oil prices.

[...]

Chicontepec is a main pillar in Pemex's strategy to get oil production back above 3 million barrels a day by 2015. Pemex expects to be producing only 72,000 barrels a day at the basin this year despite two years of aggressive drilling. But by 2015 Pemex says Chicontepec will be producing 511,000 barrels a day, or a sixth of total output.

- Brewskie