(Bloomberg) – Billionaire Carlos Slim’s Grupo Carso SAB signed a $1.99 billion contract with the state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos to drill 32 wells in a Mexican natural gas field over a three-year period.
The Ixachi field, in the southern state of Veracruz, “is considered one of the most important land fields in the country,” Carso said in a statement Monday.
Slim has been expanding his presence in the oil sector to become the most prominent private partner to state-owned Pemex — and one of the few investors still willing to do business with the heavily indebted oil firm. He’s also bought into giant oil field Zama and Lakach, for instance.
Slim has extensive experience through his telecommunications empire of improving a money-losing company that needs a jolt of efficiency — and doing so in an industry with little competition. Yet even with his business acumen and deep pockets, Pemex is still struggling to dig itself out from under a $100 billion debt pile and restore oil production that’s slumped to a 40-year low.
The Ixachi field has daily production of around 93,000 barrels of oil and 715 million cubic feet of gas, which amounts to a total of 236,000 barrels of petroleum equivalent per day, Mexico City-based Carso said. Twenty-eight wells have already been drilled in the field, and Carso has participated through subsidiaries.
Pemex will begin paying for the drilling of the wells in January 2027 with income obtained from hydrocarbons sold as part of the project. Carso expects that by that time 12 of the 32 wells will already be producing.
The cost of the contract, signed by Carso’s subsidiaries GSM Bronco SA and MX Dlta NRG 1 SA, could be lower if fewer than 32 wells are drilled, the company said.
Carso’s subsidiaries have also participated in drilling in the Quesqui field as well as developing the massive deepwater Lakach project, as part of Slim’s growing interest in investing in the energy sector. His companies have spent more than $2 billion in oil field assets and a gas deposit in the Gulf of Mexico.
Carso noted that Pemex still owes money in several drilling contracts with its subsidiaries.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, which expects Pemex to be financially self-sufficient by 2027, has maintained financial support for the driller, with strategies that include new debt offerings to support short-term maturities.
