Mexico, currently a global hotspot for exploration, will tomorrow open bids for awarding its deepwater oil and gas exploration acreage as it enters the Fourth Tender of Round 2.
Tenders will be made for license contracts in 29 offshore contractual areas in the oil provinces of Perdido, Mexican Cordilleras and the Salina Basin.
The Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH) has released a list of the nine individual companies that qualified for bidding; BHP Billiton, CNOOC, ExxonMobil, Noble Energy, Pemex, Petronas, Shell, Statoil, and Total. Seventeen consortia also taking part and in total the bidders are from 16 different countries.
The CNH will live stream the event, shaping up as something of a seminal moment in Mexico’s latent deepwater reserves that were under a state-run monopoly for decades and remained untapped as Mexico did not possess the technology or expertise for the task.
Nevertheless, subsequent energy reforms have opened the country up for exploration with approximately 60 separate companies awarded contracts for E&P in the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico.
The reforms are believed to have the potential to add $20 to $30 billion per annum in direct foreign investment to the Mexican economy.
