Harbour Energy to start appraisal drilling in Kan prospect this month

UK-based oil and gas company Harbour Energy will start appraising the Kan discovery off Mexico’s coast later this month, CEO Linda Cook said Thursday.

"In parallel, we are undertaking early engineering studies on potential development options," Cook told the company’s latest results call. 

Harbour has a 30% interest in the Kan prospect. This will rise to 70% once Harbour completes its US$11bn acquisition of upstream assets from Wintershall Dea in a deal due to close in Q4. Wintershall is currently the operator of Kan with a 40% interest but Harbour will take over when the acquisition closes.

Located in the shallow waters of block 30 in the Salina basin, preliminary estimates indicate that Kan may contain 200-300Mboe (million barrels of oil equivalent).

Kan is located about 25km off the Tabasco coast in water depth of around 50m. 

The discovery is southwest of the larger Zama field, which holds estimated resources of 600-800Mboe and where Harbour and Wintershall Dea are also both stakeholders. Harbour's share of Zama will be 32% following its acquisition of the Wintershall assets.

Discovered in 2017 and operated by Mexico's national oil company Pemex, Zama is expected to produce up to 180,000b/d at its peak. 

In June, the partners in the field awarded the front-end engineering and design contract for the development of Zama to French group Doris.

When the FEED is completed, Cook said the Zama partners will tender the major contracts to secure refreshed cost and schedule estimates ahead of a final investment decision. 

The development of Zama will include two offshore platforms, 68km of pipelines and cables as well as a new fully dedicated onshore facility in the Dos Bocas maritime terminal, in Paraiso, Tabasco.

This week Mexico's oil and gas regulator CNH approved the transfer of 11 Wintershall Dea contracts to Harbour Energy.