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00:00:00500 million cubic feet daily, this is very,
00:00:03very important, a part
00:00:06that could help with
00:00:13to forget and even though it may
00:00:17be something we saw that is very rare in the United
00:00:20States, but in Mexico, that is what we have
00:00:23experienced in the 70 years of the national oil
00:00:27industry, it is Pemex must... develop a plan
00:00:30to increase gas supply with conventional
00:00:34production from what we have experienced all the years of the national
00:00:37oil industry and avoid
00:00:41burning that resource in the oil fields, I
00:00:44believe that if we focus on this
00:00:47point, it is something that we could
00:00:51increase.
00:00:53Well, according to calculations, it
00:00:57is up to 2400 million cubic feet of natural
00:01:00gas with the elimination of
00:01:04before, it is necessary to start monitoring flaring in oil fields and greater activity in conventional fields
00:01:08Gómora, I am a research professor at that we still have in Mexico and
00:01:11in which areas? Well, here we saw it in
00:01:14Burgos, which has been the great development in Mexico in
00:01:18the conventional part in Tampico Misantla, which is
00:01:22another of the areas we have with great
00:01:25potential, Veracruz and the Southeast
00:01:28basins. The national production of
00:01:32these conventional fields can
00:01:34currently director of the Faculty of Engineering of reach up to 4700 million cubic feet
00:01:43these measures, dependence on imported natural gas can be reduced,
00:01:47but even with these and all
00:01:50the effort that can be made in all this, Mexico would
00:01:54not be able to achieve sovereignty. It
00:01:58is recommended, as I already mentioned, to increase electricity
00:02:01generation, renewable energy sources, two, implement national
00:02:05energy efficiency programs, eliminate natural
00:02:08gas flaring in oil fields. Those
00:02:11who know me, you will know
00:02:15that I have placed great emphasis on
00:02:19this, increasing natural gas production in
00:02:22conventional gas fields, next slide,
00:02:26with these measures, as we said, dependence on gas can be reduced.
00:02:30imported, but Mexico would not achieve
00:02:33sovereignty, because the
00:02:36base production we have, we see it is
00:02:3949.5%,
00:02:42eh, we see that still with conventional
00:02:45production, sorry, it's not 45%, it's
00:02:4825%, eh, with conventional
00:02:52production we would reach
00:02:54evidently 49.5%.
00:02:56If we look at it with efficiency. We would
00:03:00not reach this because we would still have
00:03:04to minimize surface impacts in imports, so we would still
00:03:07have to start
00:03:10still we must have
00:03:13greater efforts at
00:03:16the level of what we are going to do in
00:03:18Mexico and well, we will
00:03:22continue to expose to see what other efforts we can make, thank
00:03:25you very much.
00:03:33Good morning everyone, Madam President,
00:03:37the next slide please.
00:03:40Well, to continue with
00:03:44the decrease in imports and to contribute to the strengthening
00:03:47of energy sovereignty, this
00:03:50working group was tasked
00:03:54with reviewing the potential of the country's
00:03:57unconventional deposits. It
00:04:00was
00:04:01we recommend carrying out the drilling identified that the potential of natural gas from
00:04:05unconventional deposits is estimated at
00:04:08141.5
00:04:11ecosystems that depend on million million cubic feet, which are
00:04:13mainly distributed in three basins: these are
00:04:17Burgos, Sabinas Burro Picachos and Tampico
00:04:21Misantla. It is very important to highlight
00:04:24that this potential, called prospective
00:04:27resource, must be evaluated
00:04:30to determine the actual
00:04:39of this work,
00:04:41aspects were considered that
00:04:43included social issues, the
00:04:47environment, technical aspects, and with respect to this
00:04:51last one, the minimization of the
00:04:54environmental footprint, the
00:04:58improvement of logistics,
00:05:00the best international practices, as well as the current
00:05:04regulations. In this sense, considering
00:05:08all these aspects, the Commission
00:05:12recommended where to carry out
00:05:16activities in unconventional deposits and where not. For
00:05:20environmental protection, social,
00:05:22biodiversity, and demographic density criteria, it should
00:05:26be considered to prohibit activities for the exploitation
00:05:30of unconventional natural gas deposits
00:05:32in the Tampico
00:05:41commission recommends continuing
00:05:44with the evaluation to determine the feasibility of developing
00:05:48unconventional natural gas deposits
00:05:51in two basins: in
00:05:54Sabinas Burro Picachos located in the states of
00:05:58Coahuila and Nuevo León, as well as in the Burgos
00:06:01basin in the northeast of Tamaulipas.
00:06:14Why don't you introduce yourself? Yes, I forgot to introduce myself at the beginning, my
00:06:17apologies, I am Paulina
00:06:21the Faculty of Engineering of UNAM, assigned to the
00:06:24Department of Petroleum Engineering and currently head of the Division of Engineering in
00:06:37with your permission, Madam President, it is an honor to be here and to fulfill
00:06:41this task. I will also introduce myself, I am Dr. José Antonio Hernández Esprío,
00:06:47UNAM, I am a geological engineer from the faculty and I have a
00:06:50doctorate in hydrogeology from the Complutense University of Madrid. My
00:06:54expertise is groundwater and aquifers, and I was a visiting
00:06:57researcher at the University of Texas in Austin, studying
00:07:01these issues of water management in hydraulic fracturing projects. Well,
00:07:05regarding the results we obtained
00:07:08in the four groups that have already been mentioned, the water group, the
00:07:12social and environmental impacts group, engineering
00:07:15and planning and foresight, we considered
00:07:18it important to determine a series of
00:07:21conditions to carry out the exploitation of unconventional
00:07:25natural gas deposits, which we will divide into
00:07:28different aspects. First of all, regarding some
00:07:32aspects recommended by the social and environmental impacts group
00:07:35in the area of population and territory,
00:07:39it is considered very important that a prior and informed
00:07:42consultation be carried out with the population in the areas of
00:07:45influence where this type of deposits is intended to be exploited, which has
00:07:49already been established. We recommend that it be in the Burgos basin and in the Sabinas
00:07:53Burro Picachos basin to have the information from the population
00:07:56and their opinion. It is also very important to develop local
00:08:00supply chains that can encourage new
00:08:04jobs at the local level. It
00:08:07is also essential to maintain different sources of work and economic
00:08:11activities present. And at all times it is very important
00:08:16the drilling of wells, macroperas are installed, vertical
00:08:20sections, horizontal sections are made, so there is a lot of
00:08:23surface movement and above all these effects must be minimized. In the
00:08:26environmental field, the following recommendations are
00:08:30determined: number one, and I will explain it later
00:08:33when I deal with the topic of water, it is necessary to guarantee
00:08:37above all the preservation of aquifers. This activity
00:08:40of hydraulic fracturing is an activity that involves significant
00:08:44volumes of water, and above all, it is necessary to preserve the aquifers
00:08:48that today are the most important source, especially in the north of
00:08:52the country, where surface water is quite scarce, it rains very little,
00:08:55the storage of aquifers is the main source of supply
00:08:59for human consumption, for agriculture, for livestock, and therefore it will
00:09:03be necessary to preserve water security in
00:09:06aquifers, particularly those that serve for human
00:09:10consumption, also those that
00:09:13supply, let's say, ecosystems that today in the literature a
00:09:16interesting concept is handled, which are groundwater-dependent ecosystems,
00:09:20and there are different
00:09:23the hydrological conditions of different
00:09:26aquifers. On the other hand, it will also be necessary to guarantee
00:09:30a plan, to carry out a plan of prevention and mitigation of
00:09:33all operational risks related to hydraulic fracturing processes
00:09:37and projects, and it will have to be a dynamic plan that adapts
00:09:41according to the consequences. It will also be necessary to guarantee the recycling
00:09:45and correct disposal of the water that is handled and of all the
00:09:48materials used in the
00:09:56I said initially, well, Dr.
00:09:59Almamérica already commented on it, in these unconventional reservoirs,
00:10:03because the gas is immersed, it is trapped in a
00:10:07rock of very low permeability, the gas cannot flow naturally and
00:10:11the rock needs to be broken so that the gas can flow through something
00:10:15we call secondary permeability and how is the rock broken? A
00:10:18pressurizing fluid is injected at very high pressures,
00:10:2290% of this pressurizing fluid is composed of water. Therefore,
00:10:25significant volumes of water are required. International literature
00:10:29and experiences, particularly in the United States, establish that today a
00:10:33hydraulic fracturing well requires 50,000 to
00:10:3670,000 m3 of water, so these are
00:10:39significant volumes, and we delve deep
00:10:43into the water group to analyze these aspects, and the first
00:10:47recommendation we make is that under no circumstances should fresh
00:10:50water be used, that is, surface water,
00:10:54groundwater that is already committed
00:10:58to satisfying different uses, human consumption, agriculture,
00:11:01livestock. This is a recommendation we make very
00:11:04explicitly. In the same vein, what we are
00:11:07considering is that exclusively
00:11:11salt water be used. Where is this salt water found? Well, in the subsurface, at
00:11:14great depths, on the order of 1, 1500 meters deep,
00:11:17there are already some preliminary estimates that
00:11:21indicate that there are geological formations that contain salt
00:11:25water in their interior, and salt water, due to its
00:11:28salinity characteristics and some other hydrogeochemical
00:11:31characteristics, is not suitable in any way for human
00:11:34consumption, so we are recommending that this
00:11:37could be the ideal source to extract the
00:11:41salt water and fracture the rocks and thus be able to recover
00:11:44the unconventional gas. Also, on the other hand, the third
00:11:48recommendation we make in the group is to reuse and
00:11:51recycle at least 75% of the water
00:11:54used in the processes. When water
00:11:57is injected to fracture the rock, a
00:12:00fluid called flowback water is also
00:12:03recovered later, and today international
00:12:06experiences show that it is possible to recycle a
00:12:10large amount of this water, thus minimizing new
00:12:14water sources for subsequent wells. So, we are
00:12:17stipulating that we should recover at least
00:12:2075% for the different processes, and
00:12:24above all, and this is the fourth recommendation we make in the
00:12:27water group, it is necessary to carry out monitoring of the quality
00:12:31of both surface water and groundwater. Before any type of
00:12:34operation begins, we must carry out monitoring of
00:12:38rivers, lakes, springs, and of course, shallow
00:12:42aquifers to determine at this moment what are the
00:12:45current water quality characteristics and to be able to make a comparison
00:12:49in this regard. Well, regarding additives,
00:12:52why are additives used? Because this
00:12:55pressurizing fluid, which I already said is 90%
00:12:59water, is mixed with a series of chemical additives that fulfill a series
00:13:03of purposes, and so our recommendations, the recommendation of the
00:13:06social and environmental impacts group, establishes number
00:13:09one, that highly toxic or harmful chemicals should
00:13:13not be used, neither for the environment nor for health. Today there has
00:13:16already been a very interesting evolution of additives.
00:13:19In the first hydraulic fracturing processes in the United
00:13:23States and other parts of the world, many harmful
00:13:27chemicals were used. Today, it has already been decided to use
00:13:30more environmentally friendly additives, and the first
00:13:34recommendation is that we use these chemicals that can harm
00:13:38the environment. The second aspect is
00:13:41to prioritize the use of closed circuits for the
00:13:44storage and treatment of flowback water. This flowback is treated,
00:13:48but it must be treated on the surface, in closed circuits
00:13:51with infrastructure integrity
00:13:55to minimize environmental impact and so that it can be returned again
00:13:58for refracturing, and we believe that it is very important that everything that is
00:14:02generated can be open to society and therefore
00:14:05that the list of additives being used,
00:14:09the volume of water being used, and the management it is being
00:14:12given can be reported and published openly, for example,
00:14:16we think of opening a website, an internet page, so that
00:14:19all information related to this
00:14:26Well, regarding the requirements then to
00:14:29specifically evaluate the technical, environmental, and economic
00:14:33viability in the exploitation of unconventional
00:14:36gas, we consider the following aspects: number one,
00:14:40as I said before, we recommend using salt
00:14:43water, so the first thing to do
00:14:47is indeed to confirm that salt water exists
00:14:51and that the required volumes exist. As I said before, there are different
00:14:55entities, IMTA and IMP, which have carried out very interesting
00:14:58studies in which it has been preliminarily determined that
00:15:01these deep geological formations exist, but now what
00:15:05we are proposing is that beyond carrying out
00:15:09indirect techniques such as geophysics, which are very
00:15:12important techniques, we are proposing to drill a series of
00:15:15deep wells, but I allow myself to clarify, these
00:15:19are not wells to extract gas, they are wells
00:15:22for hydrogeological research purposes
00:15:25to determine that salt water indeed exists, that it has
00:15:29specific volumes and that it has hydrogeochemical characteristics
00:15:33suitable for carrying out the fracturing.
00:15:35Once it is proven that the
00:15:38necessary volume and salt water
00:15:41exist, we are considering something very important:
00:15:44that it will be necessary to prove that the
00:15:47deep geological formation that contains the salt water
00:15:50is hydraulically disconnected from both the
00:15:54unconventional deposits that are going to be exploited, in the north the
00:15:57main exploration target is the Eagle Ford
00:16:00formation which represents a geological continuity with the Eagle Ford in
00:16:04Texas, and above all, that the deep
00:16:07salty geological formations are disconnected from the fresh
00:16:10water aquifers. This will provide certainty because often in the
00:16:14subsurface there are different aquifers that communicate with each other, where
00:16:17water passes from one horizon to another horizon. This would generate
00:16:21in the long term an impact on the aquifers, and therefore it will be necessary
00:16:25to demonstrate with a series of geological, geophysical,
00:16:28hydrogeological studies that there is an hydraulic disconnection between the deep
00:16:31salt water and the shallow aquifers that today serve for
00:16:35supply, human consumption, agriculture, the region, etcetera,
00:16:38and of course, as I said
00:16:41the quality of surface water and groundwater. It will be necessary
00:16:45to design a network of wells,
00:16:48a piezometric network, and it will be necessary to systematically
00:16:51sample rivers, streams, aquifers, shallow
00:16:54wells, water wheels, springs, to determine
00:16:58something that we call in hydrogeology the baseline,
00:17:01the water ecosystem baseline. This is
00:17:04like having a current photograph of the current quality of
00:17:07surface and groundwater that will allow us to make a
00:17:11comparison once the exploitation of unconventional
00:17:14deposits is carried out to be able to determine if
00:17:18there is any impact on the hydrogeochemical
00:17:21degradation of surface
00:17:29today there is a very rough estimate of the prospective
00:17:33unconventional gas resources.
00:17:36It is important to move from prospective
00:17:40resources to reserves, which is a much more specific
00:17:44number, and for this, for the estimation of reserves, it will be
00:17:48necessary to also drill a series of exploratory wells and carry out
00:17:51different reservoir engineering techniques to be able
00:17:54to, number one, move from prospective resources to
00:17:58reserves, and once the reserves are available, confirm something very
00:18:01important, which will be the economic viability of the project, and
00:18:05now determine financially, economically, if the project is
00:18:08viable. And on the other hand, also always verify the
00:18:11applicability of technologies with less environmental impact. This
00:18:15unconventional hydrocarbon industry is very large worldwide,
00:18:18and new techniques, new methodologies are constantly
00:18:22emerging. So, a recommendation we make is that these techniques
00:18:26must always be verified to carry out pilot tests
00:18:30and proof-of-concept tests, validate technological advances that are state-of-the-art,
00:18:33and always use new methods that minimize environmental
00:18:42we have 10 conclusions that we want to present to you. The first
00:18:46conclusion, as Dr. Almamérica already commented in great
00:18:49detail, definitely the priority of our country must be
00:18:52to very quickly incorporate new renewable sources
00:18:56of electricity generation. It is a very important conclusion. The
00:18:59second conclusion is that measures and programs for energy
00:19:03efficiency must be implemented at a national level. The third
00:19:06conclusion is that it is fundamental to increase national conventional
00:19:10natural gas production, as has been discussed, and to eliminate
00:19:19well, the fourth recommendation is that, as already established and for
00:19:22the reasons explained in this presentation, we recommend
00:19:26prohibiting natural gas extraction activities from unconventional
00:19:29reservoirs in the Tampico Misantla basin.
00:19:33Conclusion number five, and as I mentioned a moment ago,
00:19:38of wells from the point of view of hydrogeological research
00:19:42to confirm the existence of salt water bodies and
00:19:46to determine that there is a hydraulic disconnection between salt water bodies
00:19:50and shallow aquifers that today are the main source of
00:20:00to continue, as point number six, it is
00:20:04recommended to confirm natural gas reserves in
00:20:07unconventional reservoirs through
00:20:10studies and well drilling, which form
00:20:13part of an integral program
00:20:17that specifically considers
00:20:20the sweet spots, the so-called sweet spots, and
00:20:24that adopts the latest generation technologies
00:20:28in both exploration and exploitation. As point
00:20:31number seven, the best practices in terms of
00:20:34waste management should be implemented.
00:20:37I would like to highlight that it is recommended
00:20:41to call them less harmful by-products of valorization
00:20:45and environmental protection actions, why? Because it was identified
00:20:49in the group that the international trend is not to transition
00:20:52from a disposal model to a valorization
00:20:56model, which is
00:20:59known as the circular economy, where these
00:21:03by-products that are generated can be
00:21:12prior, free, and informed consultations with the population in the
00:21:16areas of influence before starting any
00:21:20production activity. Nine, local
00:21:23supply must be encouraged to promote
00:21:26regional employment, as
00:21:29well as national content, and
00:21:33finally, but not least importantly, it is recommended
00:21:36to establish an external and independent scientific
00:21:40monitoring system that supports the verification
00:21:42of aquifer integrity, the water balance of the
00:21:46producing regions, seismic
00:21:49activity, the protection of ecosystems, among
00:21:53others, and that provides permanent technical
00:22:11how we work on different topics,
00:22:15advised, supported by a scientific
00:22:18committee, which allows us to evaluate, also
00:22:22with a scientific committee from different points of
00:22:25view, which allows us to evaluate in this
00:22:28case the possible production of unconventional gas
00:22:31in our country, and they were very clear in the 10
00:22:35recommendations: first, before
00:22:38starting
00:22:40any
00:22:42exploitation of unconventional natural gas, it is
00:22:46necessary to strengthen renewable energy sources; two,
00:22:50to use energy more efficiently, meaning
00:22:54efficiency equipment that allows us
00:22:56to have the same service but with other
00:23:00generation, production, and energy consumption
00:23:04equipment; three, to use the gas
00:23:08that is flared into the atmosphere; four,
00:23:11to utilize
00:23:14the potential that still exists for conventional gas in
00:23:18our country. Now,
00:23:21to talk about unconventional gas, they ask us
00:23:24to prohibit the exploitation of unconventional
00:23:28gas in the Tampico Misantla
00:23:31basin, which is mainly
00:23:33Veracruz and a part of southern Tamaulipas.
00:23:37because it is socially and environmentally unviable,
00:23:41so we are
00:23:44going to recognize it, and
00:23:46then what they tell us is before
00:23:50starting any unconventional gas production,
00:23:52first make sure that there is
00:23:55saltwater in the subsoil,
00:23:59because fresh water cannot be used, because that fresh water
00:24:02is committed to human consumption and for agricultural
00:24:05irrigation and for other activities, so
00:24:09make sure that in the subsoil of the other basins
00:24:12there is saltwater that can be used for this, what
00:24:16do they have to do to make sure there is saltwater, drill experimental
00:24:20wells, to see how much water there is
00:24:23at depth and what quality of water it has
00:24:27to know if it is feasible to use in unconventional
00:24:30gas production, another
00:24:33is, make sure there really is gas,
00:24:36uh, don't start producing without
00:24:39guaranteeing that there really is unconventional
00:24:42gas there, so we ask
00:24:45them to continue accompanying us, oh well and
00:24:49another thing as you saw is that they continue accompanying the
00:24:51experts, that all the information be public, transparent
00:24:55and
00:24:57also that there be a public consultation before starting any
00:25:01type of production in the area, so that the
00:25:04population, in the case of nearby population and some
00:25:08desert areas,
00:25:10but in the case of nearby population, that a consultation be held to see
00:25:14if people agree, an informed consultation where the
00:25:18people who live nearby can tell us if they agree or
00:25:22disagree with this type of exploitation, we ask
00:25:26them to continue accompanying us because these are some first
00:25:30preliminary conclusions,
00:25:32going forward with the drilling of wells to see if
00:25:36there is saltwater in the subsoil, well, we still
00:25:40want the support of the 54 experts and to continue
00:25:44working so that if there is unconventional gas
00:25:47that can be used,
00:25:50they tell us what technologies to use so that water can be
00:25:53recycled, so that
00:25:56very toxic substances are not
00:26:00used and that most of that water
00:26:04is recycled, so the truth is that
00:26:08I congratulate you because it is an extraordinary
00:26:11work and we are going to take all the
00:26:13conclusions that they gave us and what we would
00:26:17do would be to start from the Mexican Institute of Water Technology
00:26:20with exploratory water wells to see if there is
00:26:23saltwater, because if there is no saltwater, then the
00:26:27possibility of any type of unconventional
00:26:31gas exploitation is closed. So the first thing,
00:26:34transparently, is where the saltwater drilling well will
00:26:37be done and that they continue to accompany
00:26:41us to guarantee that indeed what
00:26:44we are finding is feasible to continue using,
00:26:48so what I propose to the people of Mexico is to
00:26:52continue working and every two months, two and a half months,
00:26:55as the conclusions come, continue informing in the
00:26:58morning press conference and also have a special
00:27:02page in the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of
00:27:05Science, Technology, Humanities
00:27:08and Innovation, so that all Mexicans can
00:27:12see the information. In addition, the studies
00:27:16that were carried out during these two and a half months or almost
00:27:19three months will be made available to the public
00:27:22also on these platforms that will be
00:27:26linked to the website of the Ministry of Energy and that of Science,
00:27:30Technology and Innovation. The SEMARNAT is also
00:27:33accompanying us in this whole process, it is not here today
00:27:36with us, but it has been accompanying us and as you can
00:27:40see, they are the best experts in Mexico on energy
00:27:44planning, renewable energy sources, energy
00:27:47efficiency, conventional gas,
00:27:51reduction of gas flaring in conventional
00:27:54wells as well, the best experts in water, in
00:27:58water recycling as well,
00:28:01regarding what would have to do directly with the
00:28:05exploitation of unconventional gas, so these
00:28:08are the conclusions, we take them as they are
00:28:11and well, we are going to start with the
00:28:15following works transparently and in about
00:28:19two months, two and a half months, we will return to the morning
00:28:23conference to inform if we found saltwater,
00:28:26what type of water it is or if the
00:28:29processes are still
00:28:33under review, first of all, of the
00:28:35characteristics of the water that could be used in the
00:28:38exploitation of these
00:28:57from Revista Fortuna, President, fracking was conceived in the United
00:29:00States for high price environments. Uh, what
00:29:03will happen with this option and with low prices,
00:29:07I'd like to ask you what range of high prices
00:29:10are observed in this project, we still need the
00:29:14economic feasibility that they will also help us with to see
00:29:18how much exploitation costs and how much a cubic foot of
00:29:22gas would cost to know what we would do with
00:29:26this study,
00:29:29now what is the objective of this, not
00:29:32to depend so much on the outside, even though even with all
00:29:36the exploitation that would be done of unconventional gas, we would
00:29:39continue importing from the United States, the
00:29:43objective is to lower imports, so that
00:29:46we do not depend so much on the outside, this is something that Mexico seeks,
00:29:50no, all countries in the world seek to guarantee their
00:29:53energy sovereignty, so the economic
00:29:56part will also continue to be worked
00:29:59on by the experts. What
00:30:03type of technologies will also evidently be something to
00:30:06take into account, thank you very much President, if
00:30:09you could also explain in more detail what the
00:30:12conditions are, scientifically, what are the
00:30:15conditions to consider if in certain
00:30:18states like Coahuila and why not in states like
00:30:22Tampico, well Veracruz
00:30:25mainly the southern part of
00:30:27Tamaulipas,
00:30:30first the type of...
00:30:32issues,
00:30:34the population that is there, that are densely populated areas
00:30:38and
00:30:41it was considered that due to environmental and social conditions,
00:30:45according to what the experts explained to us, that area
00:30:48should, uh, the exploitation of unconventional
00:30:51gas should be prohibited and start analyzing