«Oilfield engineering»

Development of the Pimienta shale formation in Mexico

UDC: 622.276.1/.4(4/9)
DOI: -

Authors:

¹ LUKOIL Upstream Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
² National University of Oil and Gas "Gubkin University", Moscow, Russia

Keywords: hydrocarbons, Pimienta Formation, Eagle Ford formation, clay-carbonate deposits, clay shale, source strata, reservoir, cyclical development

Annotation:

Since 2005, Mexico has been experiencing a steady decline of daily oil production. Recent offshore oil production projects in the northern Gulf of Mexico have had a limited impact on the production decline, falling from 3,4 to 1,7 million barrels per day. The commissioning of new offshore fields such as Zama will increase production by no more than 0,1 million barrels per day and will not reverse the overall downward production trend. A solution of the problem is the development of the Pimienta Shale Formation in the Tampico-Misantla and Veracruz oil and gas basins, which will increase daily oil production in Mexico by 0,5… 1,5 million barrels per day starting in 2030. The potential of the Pimienta Formation in these basins is estimated at 40 to 80 billion tons of oil, and with a recovery factor of 4 to 7 %, cumulative production could reach 2…6 billion tons. When developing productive intervals of the Pimienta Formation, it is proposed to use a cyclic development method with repeated hydraulic fracturing, which will extend the operational life of wells, thereby maintaining high production levels without drilling new production wells.

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