Pemex awards Ku-maloob-Zaap pipeline contract

By eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 -- Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has let a contract to Global Industries Ltd. for oil and natural gas pipeline work in Pemex's Ku-Maloob-Zaap field in the Bay of Campeche, which it had announced in July.

The project, worth about $46 million, is scheduled to begin in March 2009 and be completed by the end of July 2009. Global will utilize its Shawnee construction vessel as the main pipelaying vessel, with additional support vessels assisting.

Global will install two pipelines in water about 300 ft deep: 2.1 km of 24-in. line extending from PP-Maloob-C platform to PP-Ku-H platform, and ½ km of 12-in. from a subsea connection to the PP-Maloob-C.

The project also includes pipeline crossings, risers, and expansion curves, the firm said.

Ku-Maloob-Zaap is one of Pemex's central projects for offsetting the natural decline at Cantarell field, which currently accounts for more than 40% of the company's output.

In August, Vinicio Suro, deputy director of planning and evaluation at Pemex's E&P subsidiary, said the firm aims to produce 800,000 b/d in 2009 at the Ku-Maloob-Zaap project.

"We are working hard, drilling wells, and completing our platforms," Suro told an investors webcast. "So far, so good, in the sense we are reaching the targets easily, working hard, and finding new discoveries in the surrounding Ku-Maloob-Zaap."

According to the energy ministry, Ku-Maloob-Zaap production averaged 681,701 b/d in the first half of this year, up from 487,319 b/d in the same 6-month period of 2007.