Mexican hydrocarbons regulator CNH has approved the development plan submitted by state-owned energy company Pemex and its partners for the Zama shallow-water field in the Sureste basin off the coast of Tabasco state.

The decision paves the way for the Pemex-led consortium to sanction the project and invest approximately $4.5 billion to start output from the promising play in 2025.

Zama was Mexico’s first offshore find made by a private-sector company after constitutional reforms opened the development of the country’s hydrocarbons sector to foreign investments.

US independent Talos Energy made the discovery in Block 7 in the Gulf of Mexico in 2017, but four years later the Mexican government handed the Zama operatorship to Pemex following a controversial unitisation ruling.

Under the plan greenlighted by CNH, Zama will be exploited via a pair of fixed production platforms — Zama-A and Zama-B — and a total of 46 development wells including 29 oil producers.

Output from Zama-A will be transferred to Zama-B, where oil and gas processing will take place before the hydrocarbons are delivered through a pair of 63.5-kilometre pipelines to new onshore facilities in the Dos Bocas maritime terminal.

The bulk of the capital investment is earmarked for 2024 and 2025 for well construction and the facilities that will handle oil and gas production.

According to CNH, Zama is due to reach peak production between 2029 and 2030 at 180,000 barrels per day of oil and 70 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

Pemex operates Zama with a 50.4% stake and is partnered by Germany’s Wintershall Dea on 19.8%, Talos on 17.4% and London-listed independent Harbour Energy on 12.4%.