Qatar Petroleum (QP) entered into an agreement with Eni to acquire a 35% participating interest in three offshore oil fields in Mexico. The agreement covers Amoca, Mizton and Tecoalli offshore oil fields, which lie in Area 1 of Mexico’s Campeche Bay.

The agreement is subject to customary regulatory approvals by the government of Mexico. Following such approval, both Eni and QP will jointly hold 100% interest in the Area 1 production sharing contract.

Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Qatar Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and President and CEO of QP, said the agreement marks another milestone as it strengthens its international footprint and expands its presence in Mexico.

Qatar Petroleum is pleased to enhance its fruitful cooperation and partnerships with a major energy player like Eni. We are also excited about participating in this development in Mexico’s Campeche Bay, and with first oil production expected by mid-2019, we look forward to collaborating with Eni to ramp up production to around 90,000 barrels of oil per day by 2021.’

The National Hydrocarbon Commission of Mexico approved the phased development plan for Area 1 allowing for early production to start by mid- 2019 through a well head platform in the Mizton field and a multiphase pipeline for treatment at an existing Pemex facility.

The full field production is expected to be achieved in 2021 through a floating production, storage, and off-loading facility with a treatment capacity of 90,000 barrels of oil per day. Two additional platforms will be installed on the Amoca field and the Tecoalli field. Area 1 is estimated to hold 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 90% of which is oil.

This is the second presence for QP in Mexico. At the end of January 2018, QP won exploration rights in five offshore blocks in the Perdido and Campeche basins as part of a consortium comprising Shell and Eni, respectively.

In line with its growth plans, this opportunity represents another step in implementing QP’s strategy to expand its international footprint, and to pursue Latin America as an important core area for its upstream activities.

QP’s international upstream footprint has been expanding recently in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Cyprus, Congo, South Africa, Mozambique and the Sultanate of Oman.

Al Kaabi said the expansions go hand in hand with our previous announcements to develop and increase our natural gas production from 77 million tonnes per year to 110 million tonnes in the coming years; and to raise our production capability from 4.8 million barrels oil equivalent per day to 6.5 million barrels in the next decade.