Mexico awarded 10 of 15 shallow-water areas on offer during its second bid round for shallow water acreage, with both global giants and local players participating and Pemex inking two more partnerships.
Bidding heated up as the day went on during Mexico’s second bid round for shallow-water oil and gas acreage, with Eni taking three new offshore blocks and Pemex sewing up two new partnerships with companies with Dea Deutsche Erdoel and Ecopetrol.
Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell, after years of interest, also secured its first entry into Mexico, alongside French major Total taking Area 15 in the south-east basin, prospective for wet gas.
“We are highly satisfied,” energy secretary Pedro Joaquin Coldwell told reporters during a press conference afterwards.
“It’s a very high percentage of blocks, which fills us with satisfaction even when the crude prices aren’t the best.”
Coldwell said the Mexican state sees an investment of up to $8.19 billion over the lives of the contracts, and if carried to fruition up to 170,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The energy secretary congratulated regulators for crafting contracts that had a “strong Mexican accent” but were still globally competitive, he said.
