UPDATE 1-Mexican president says government not seeking to control Zama oilfield

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday that his government is not seeking to take control of the Zama oilfield discovery, which is currently operated by a private consortium led by U.S.-based Talos Energy.

Reuters reported earlier this week that Mexico's national oil company Pemex wants to take control of Zama from Talos, which made the discovery on the edge of its block which is adjacent to an area belonging to Pemex and where the find likely extends. "It's a deposit that is shared with Pemex and there's no problem," Lopez Obrador told reporters at his regular morning news conference without going into further detail.

Zama, located offshore in the southern Gulf of Mexico, was discovered in 2017 and is believed to contain nearly a billion barrels of oil, making it the largest non-Pemex discovery in decades. Pemex has yet to drill on its neighboring block to confirm the extension of the discovery.

The Talos-led consortium also includes Germany's Wintershall DEA and Britain's Premier Oil.

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