• Completion of Wintershall Dea’s acquisition of material stake in the Hokchi Block, offshore Mexico
• Enhancing Wintershall Dea’s presence in Mexico, by adding significant production volumes
• Production from the Hokchi field is currently at about 27,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day gross

The acquisition of a 37% non-operated participating interest in the oil producing Hokchi Block offshore Mexico by Wintershall Dea was completed on 30 March. All government approvals were obtained and Wintershall Dea, together with the remaining partners in the Hokchi Block have signed the corresponding Production Sharing Contract amendment. With this acquisition, Wintershall Dea further enhances its presence in Mexico and its long-term commitment to the country’s energy sector. 

“We are very pleased to complete the transaction. The acquisition and the significant production we are adding with it are exactly in line with our strategy to further expand our international portfolio. We are thus strengthening our position in Mexico, one of Wintershall Dea’s most important growth countries”, says Thilo Wieland, member of Wintershall Dea’s Management Board, responsible for Latin America.

Wintershall Dea is now the second-largest interest holder in the Hokchi Block after operator Hokchi Energy, a subsidiary of Pan American Energy.

The Hokchi Block represents a producing asset that fully meets Wintershall Dea’s strategic requirements, also in terms of efficiency and emissions. It currently produces circa 27,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day gross, making it one of the fields with the highest production rate among those operated by privately led companies in Mexico.

Martin Jungbluth, Managing Director of Wintershall Dea in Mexico, underlines: “The interest in the producing Hokchi field is an excellent complement to our strong, balanced portfolio in Mexico, which includes prospective exploration assets, key development projects such as Zama and Polok, and our operated Ogarrio field. We look forward to now starting the joint work of further developing the field with operator Hokchi Energy.”

With the closing of the transaction, Wintershall Dea now has a share of 37% in the Hokchi Block, while operator Hokchi Energy holds 59.4% and AINDA 3.6%.

ABOUT THE HOKCHI BLOCK

The Hokchi Block was awarded in Mexico’s licensing round 1.2 and is operated by Hokchi Energy. The field is located in the Sureste Basin, where Wintershall Dea already has a strong portfolio of promising licences. It’s in the vicinity of the Zama, Polok and Chinwol discoveries as well as the company’s own operated exploration Block 30. The shallow-water block Hokchi is developed as a subsea tie-back of the producing wells to two offshore platforms, Hokchi Central and Hokchi Satellite, and was brought on-stream in May 2020 following an appraisal campaign. The produced hydrocarbons are piped over a distance of 24 kilometres from the two offshore platforms to a dedicated onshore processing facility where oil and gas are separated and treated for further sale to the Mexican state company Pemex.

WINTERSHALL DEA IN MEXICO

Wintershall Dea set foot in Mexico in 2017. The company has started exploring for and producing hydrocarbons in Mexico in 2018. Since then, the company has managed to establish itself as one of the leading international upstream companies in Mexico, with interests in licences in all phases of the E&P value chain.

With a 50% share, Wintershall Dea has been operator of the producing onshore Ogarrio oil field since 2018. The Mexican state company Pemex is a partner and holds the remaining shares. Wintershall Dea is the second largest shareholder in the world-class Zama discovery, after Pemex. In addition, Wintershall Dea has material interests in ten offshore exploration blocks located in the Gulf of Mexico, three of them as operator.