Offshore staff

MEXICO CITY, Mexico -- PEMEX plans to award contracts for four deepwater drilling units this week.

Luis Miguel Labardini, a consultant with Marcos y Asociados in Mexico, told participants at an oil and gas industry seminar in Singapore that PEMEX will award the contracts soon.

The company needs a deepwater semisubmersible unit or drillship capable of drilling in 3,048 m (10,000 ft) water depth and another with 2,134-m (7,000-ft) water depth capability. PEMEX also needs two deepwater semisubmersibles that can drill in 305 m (1,000 ft) water depth, he said.

The rigs will enable PEMEX to explore deepwater basins in the Mexican Gulf of Mexico, where the company is planning to invest $25-30 billion per year by 2015.

Most of the exploration offshore Mexico is now in shallow water, ranging from 50 m to 500 m (164-1,640 ft).

PEMEX is expected to spend $15 billion on its upstream sector this year, up from $14 billion last year and $10.8 billion in 2005.

2/12/2007