August 23, 2024 [Reuters]- Mexico’s hydrocarbon regulator approved on Thursday a request by state energy company Pemex to expand a natural gas project in the Gulf of Mexico, which requires extra investments of just over $400 million.

The Lakach field has been hailed as a potential gateway to a new deepwater Mexican gas frontier.

Pemex had requested to update the field’s production strategy with the recovery and termination of wells, the management of production, and the commercialization of hydrocarbons.

Of the $2.218 billion in costs that were approved for the years of 2024 and 2041 by the regulator CNH, $1.667 billion are earmarked for investments and $551 million for operational expenses.

An earlier plan, authorized last year for 2024 to 2035, listed an estimated $1.815 billion. Its production deadline was also pushed back from 2025 to 2026.

Recently, Grupo Carso, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, signed an exploration and extraction services contract with Pemex. It said it would invest $1.2 billion.

Pemex has said that it has spent about $1.400 billion on Lakach, a project that has been shelved twice before. Pemex and New Fortress Energy parted at the end of 2023 after they could not agree on terms.

In addition, the project now contemplates the construction of gas pipelines up to the ground – instead of using boats to collect the gas and transport it, as previously planned.