The state oil company Pemex has set a new record for the world’s longest non-vertical borehole, CEO Octavio Romero claimed Thursday.

Pemex has drilled a 2.1-kilometer-long horizontal borehole along the coast of Tabasco through which a new oil pipeline will run.

Romero flew over the subterranean perforation on Thursday and posted footage of his experience to social media.

“In doing this project we achieved a directional or subterranean perforation of 2.1 kilometers. It’s a distance that hasn’t been achieved anywhere in the world, a very important project that protects the environment,” the Pemex chief said in a video posted to Twitter.

Documentado #RecordGuinness de @Pemex (parte 1) pic.twitter.com/yFydVsSjI4

— Octavio Romero (@OctavioRomero_O) August 11, 2022

“… We’re documenting it because it’s a world record, we’re documenting it for Guinness World Records. … More than 30,000 barrels of oil will flow through this oil pipeline,” Romero said.

There is an existing Guinness record for the deepest penetration into the earth’s crust – the over 12-kilometer-deep Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia – but there doesn’t appear to be one for a non-vertical borehole.

Romero said that oil from three new Gulf of Mexico oil fields will run through the 24-inch pipeline that will pass through the new pipeline, which reaches depths of 25 meters.

“To avoid damage to the environment, erosion, damage to [the sea], damage to mangroves, … the pipeline won’t go over the seabed nor over land, it will be underground,” he said.

With reports from Energía Hoy and XEVT