Cantarell Field

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Cantarell
Region:	North America
Country:	Mexico
Offshore/Onshore:	Offshore
Operators:	Pemex
Field History
Discovery:	1976
Start of production:	1981
Peak of production:	2004
Production
Current Production Oil (Bod):	580,000 bpd (Sep 2009)[1]
Producing Formations:	Jurassic

Cantarell Field or Cantarell Complex is the largest oil field in Mexico and one of the largest in the world. It was discovered in 1976 by a fisherman, Rudesindo Cantarell. It was placed on nitrogen injection in 2000, and production peaked at 2.1 million barrels per day (330,000 m³/d) in 2003. Production declined rapidly after that, and by 2009 had fallen to 772,000 barrels per day (123,000 m³/d), making it Mexico's second largest oil field after Ku-Maloob-Zaap.^[1] In November 2006 Pemex reported that Cantarell had produced 11.429 billion barrels (1.82×10^⁹ m³) of oil.^[2]

Contents 1 Location 2 History 3 Nitrogen injection 4 Production decline 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Location

Cantarell is located 80 kilometres (50 mi) offshore in the Bay of Campeche. This complex comprises four major fields: Akal (by far the largest), Nohoch, Chac and Kutz. The reservoirs are formed from carbonate breccia of Upper Cretaceous age, the rubble from the asteroid impact that created the Chicxulub Crater. The recently discovered Sihil (1-1.5 billion barrels) contains light oil in Jurassic strata below the other reservoirs and is generally referred to as a separate field, although its development will obviously benefit from the infrastructure already in place above it. Cantarell's oil production peaked in 2004 and has declined in subsequent years, with further decline expected in the future.^[3]

[edit] History

The first field was discovered in 1976, and by 1981 the Cantarell complex was producing 1.16 million barrels per day (180,000 m³/d). However, the production rate dropped to 1 million barrels per day (160,000 m³/d) in 1995. The nitrogen injection project started operating in 2000, and it increased the production rate to 1.6 million barrels per day (250,000 m³/d), to 1.9 million barrels per day (300,000 m³/d) in 2002 and to 2.1 million barrels per day (330,000 m³/d) of output in 2003, which ranked Cantarell the second fastest producing oil field in the world behind Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia.^[4] However, Cantarell had much smaller oil reserves than Ghawar, so production began to decline rapidly in the second half of the decade.

[edit] Nitrogen injection

The nitrogen for the nitrogen injection process is supplied by the largest nitrogen production plant in the world. The plant currently consists of four production lines, each consisting of an air separation unit (ASU) powered by its own turbine generator, which is supplied with natural gas by PEMEX, and ancillary equipment. A fifth production line was under construction in late 2006. The nitrogen production plant was built by a consortium among: the construction/engineering companies Empresas ICA of Mexico and Fluor Corp. of the USA; gas companies Linde and BOC Group; Westcoast Energy of Canada, a gas pipeline company later acquired by Spectra Energy; and Marubeni. The nitrogen plant is owned and operated by a joint venture company which is majority owned by BOC Group, which was itself acquired by Linde in 2006.

[edit] Production decline

Luis Ramírez Corzo, head of PEMEX's exploration and production division, announced on August 12, 2004 that the actual oil output from Cantarell was forecast to decline steeply from 2006 onwards, at a rate of 14% per year. In March 2006 it was reported that Cantarell had already peaked, with a second year of declining production in 2005. For 2006, the field's output declined by 13.1%, according to Jesús Reyes Heróles, the director-general of PEMEX.^[5]

In July 2008, daily production rate fell sharply by 36% to 973,668 barrels per day (155,000 m³/d) from 1.526 million barrels per day (243×10^³ m³/d) a year earlier.^[6] Analysts theorize that this rapid decline is a result of production enhancement techniques causing faster short-term oil extraction at the expense of field longevity. By January 2009, oil production at Cantarell had fallen to 772,000 barrels per day (123,000 m³/d), a drop in production of 38% for the year, resulting in a drop in total Mexican oil production of 9.2%, the fifth year in a row of declining Mexican production.^[1]

In 2008, Pemex expected Cantarells decline to continue to 2012 and eventually stabilizing at an output level of around 500,000 barrels per day (80,000 m³/d).^[6] By September 2009 this figure was already achieved, marking one of the most dramatic declines ever seen in the oil industry.^[7] Production is now expected to stabilize at 400,000 barrels per day (60,000 m³/d). The shortfall is having a negative effect on Mexico's annual government budget and sovereign-credit rating.^[7]

In order to try to maintain heavy crude production in the Bay of Campeche, PEMEX is focusing its efforts on the development of the Ku-Maloob-Zaap complex in an adjacent area, which can be connected to the existing facilities of Cantarell. Ku-Maloob-Zaap complex is expected to produce 0.8 million barrels per day (130,000 m³/d) by the end of decade. In 2009, Ku-Maloob-Zaap replaced Cantarell as Mexico's most productive oil field.^[1][7]

[edit] See also

• List of oil fields
• Oil in Mexico

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Peak Oil is Now Official by Trey Shaughnessy, 18 March 2006.
• Mexico Oil Production going down January 2007
• Cantarell main data
• Rigzone Article on Decline
• Cantarell is Dying (Article)
• Cantarell History and FACTS Pemex