By Nancy Caouette

MEXICO CITY 

A consortium of three international private energy companies announced Wednesday they discovered more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

Talos Energy, Sierra Oil and Gas and Premier Oil, based in the United States, Mexico and the U.K. respectively, said the Zama-1 well was drilled 37 miles (60 kilometers) off the coast of Dos Bocas in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco.

The well, drilled in shallow water, is the first discovery made by the private sector in Mexico, a country that ended a more than seven-decade monopoly held by national oil company Pemex when it launched energy law reform in 2013.

Initial resources are estimated by Talos Energy in the range of 1.4 billion and 2 billion barrels of oil.

According to Sierra Oil and Gas, which owns 40 percent of the block, the first barrel of oil from will be extracted in 2020 or 2021.

The field will produce oil for decades, said Ivan Sandrea, CEO of Sierra Oil and Gas, in an interview with local media.

“This first result is very encouraging for Sierra Oil, for our partners, but especially for Mexico,” he saidm adding that Zama-1 will produce approximately 100,000 barrels per day.

The consortium won the rights to drill in the zone in July 2015.