No New Forms In The File For Marathon's 2nd Tyler Well; No New Data; Comes Off Confidential List Today

The file report on MRO's second Tyler well in southwest North Dakota:

• 26355, drl, MRO, Powell 31-27TH, wildcat, Tyler formation, 1280-acre spacing,

No geologist's report yet, no results. Just the planning forms.

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Mexico Unlikely To Reach Production Goals

Puts The Bakken (and Free-Market Capitalism and Strong Work Ethic) In Perspective

Platts is reporting:

Delays in implementing Mexico's sweeping energy sector reforms will prevent the country from producing over 3 million b/d until at least 2020, an executive with the country's state oil company Pemex said Tuesday.

"We can increase, of course, but not enough to arrive at 3 million [b/d]," Fluvio Ruiz Alarcon, a professional and independent board member at Pemex, said on the sidelines of a Wilson Center event on Mexico's energy reform. "I'm sure we're going to produce over 3 million [b/d] but not by 2018. Maybe 2020, but not before."

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto set the 3 million b/d by 2018 production goal as the country's Congress passed a reform bill to end Mexico's 75-year state oil monopoly in December. But hurdles in finalizing the secondary legislation needed to implement the reforms, a process which includes modifying or creating 21 separate laws and faces significant opposition from the country's pro-business national action party (PAN), have already made this goal seem highly unrealistic.

And then this:

"A lot of us didn't understand how hard it would be to get the secondary legislation passed," said Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. "This is far from being a done deal, this is far from over."

New technologies and partnerships with some foreign firms could boost production in the near term by roughly 200,000 b/d, largely in mature, established fields, according Marcelo Mereles, a partner at EnergeA and a former Pemex international affairs advisor.

But production in undeveloped fields, in the Gulf of Mexico or in fields abandoned by Pemex will likely not be close to development by 2018, Mereles said.

Quick: how much oil did Mexico produce on a daily basis in 2012 (all that Gulf of Mexico oil; those huge basins)?

• 2.6 million bopd. The entire country of Mexico, on-shore and off-shore.

Compare to North Dakota:

• in excess of one million bopd and only a handful of western counties in one state.

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Mike Filloon's Bakken Update

Unless I missed it, not much about the Bakken. Rather, a passing reference to "Bakken technology" being taken to Texas, and then a very, very long review of shale operations in Texas:

At Split Rock, we try to diversify our dollars across different U.S. basins. By doing this, we gain exposure to the best areas and operators in differing locales. Diversification is important, as it limits our downside, which is important in a volatile sector.

The Eagle Ford is difficult, as the bulk of production growth and downspacing has occurred. We do like the play, but have more difficulty in finding solid operators with good prospects. We believe Matador Resources may be one of the best ways to gain exposure to the Eagle Ford. We also like its exploratory program in the Permian. There is more than just acreage and geology to be considered, as we believe Matador is a top notch operator. It has an excellent well design, which probably evolved from its non-operated acreage with EOG Resources.

As we have said before, EOG continues to be the best unconventional operator in the United States. This has paid dividends for Matador, and in our opinion may continue to do so.