The British-led consortium BP was fined for the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) for almost 33 million dollars for not fulfilling the obligations committed in the contract for exploration and production of hydrocarbons in an onshore oil area in Mexico, after its decision to abandon the field in shallow waters last year.
The governing body of the National Hydrocarbons Commissionregulator in upstream activities in the country, approved a conventional penalty to the consortium led by the English operator for non-compliance with the Minimum Work Program and its increase, with respect to the contract CNH-R03-L01-G-CS-03/2018.
The hydrocarbons regulator in Mexico decided to apply a conventional penalty of 32.8 million dollars for non-compliance with the unfulfilled portion of the Minimum Work Program, due to the total resignation of the area last year.
In August 2022, the governing body of the CNH authorized the initiation and processing of the early termination procedure by relinquishing the entire contractual area, notified by bp Exploration Mexico.
In the registry of the CNH, the English operator leads the consortium where the French Total also participates, as a financial partner with 27.5% of the project; Argentina’s Hokchi with 15%, and Qatar’s QPI with another 15% of the project.
In August of last year, the regulator approved the start of the termination process by early resignation by the company BP Exploration Mexico.
In the 67th extraordinary session of the government body, the commissioners approved the initiation and processing of the early termination procedure due to the resignation of the company of British origin over the area, under the modality of shared production and located off the coast of Campeche.
“The Contractor refers that the decision was made by the Operating Committee, given the discouraging results obtained from the exploratory studies carried out within the Contract Area during the Initial Exploration Period, related to investigating the presence of hydrocarbons, evaluating the oil potential and determine the distribution of plays with hydrocarbon production potential”, assured the CNH.
BP won block 3 during the first bidding of the third oil round held in 2018.
The area is located in shallow waters and occupies a total area of 734.05 square kilometers.
