Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH) has revealed a long list of individual international oil and gas companies, in addition to consortia, that have been prequalified for the country’s highly anticipated deepwater round set for next week.
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Image of Zepeda, from gob.mx. |
Individual companies that are set to bid on Mexico’s first-ever deepwater contract areas include supermajors ExxonMobil and BP, as well as Australia’s BHP Billiton, China’s CNOOC, Malaysia’s Petronas, Mexico’s own Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Norway's Statoil, and France’s Total.
In addition, seven consortia will be bidding on the deepwater areas, which include: Atlantic Rim Mexico and Shell; Chevron, Pemex and Inpex Corp.; Eni and Lukoil; Murphy Oil, Ophir, PC Carigali, and Sierra Offshore Exploration; PC Carigali and Sierra; Statoil, BP, and Total; and Total and ExxonMobil.
Round 1.4, scheduled for Monday 5 December, will consist of 10 deepwater exploration blocks: six in the Salina basin of the Gulf of Mexico and four in the Mexican side of the Perdido belt that are in the northern section. The area covers a total of 8250km at water depths ranging from 500-3000m.
"It's a large number of bidders," Juan Carlos Zepeda, CNH president said, according to Reuters. "We have companies that are competing as individuals and as consortia, and some of them are even participating in more than one consortium."
Zepeda emphasized that companies are barred from bidding more than once on the same project, Reuters reported.
The auction on 5 December marks two firsts for Mexico, the deepwater round, and also a contest for Pemex's first farmout, the deepwater Trion discovery.
In August, CNH revealed 26 companies that were qualified to participate in Round 1.4. Missing from today’s list include: Hess Corp., Noble Energy, Repsol, Galp Energia, Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui, ONGC, PetroCanada, and Petrobras.
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