Two of Latin America's largest oil companies are making a major bet on a high-risk project aimed at gaining access to huge oil reserves located in formations that have not seen sunlight for 160 million years.
According to Bloomberg, Petroleo Brasileiro and Petroleos Mexicanos have joined forces to explore the layer of the Earth's crust beneath the Gulf of Mexico, which is older, deeper, and likely richer in oil than the world's existing largest oil fields.
The physical, financial, and environmental risks are enormous, given the complexity of extracting oil from several kilometers below the seabed, where drilling is required through unstable rock layers under extreme pressure.
The target is a geological cluster off the coast of Mexico's Campeche state, which Pemex unsuccessfully explored in 2018.
According to Bloomberg, in recent weeks, specialists from both companies have begun analyzing seismic and other geological data, hoping to achieve what has not been done in any location outside Brazil.
However, even if there is indeed oil there, bringing it to the surface will be extremely challenging.
The companies also plan to search for oil beneath sedimentary rocks formed by landslides of clay and sand several kilometers below the sea surface:
