MEXICO: Country Awards 16 Oil Blocks In The Gulf Region

(RTTNews) - Mexico's government awarded 16 contracts for oil and gas exploration and extraction in Gulf of Mexico's shallow waters to 14 companies in the first call of the Round Three of oil area auctions.

The contracts awarded amount to approximately US$ 8.6 billion in investments, tapping on a reserve of 513 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The Mexican state should receive, on average, between 72% and 78% of the profits generated in the awarded contracts. Likewise, it would receive US$ 124 million derived from the winning bids, in which the state-owned oil company Pemex obtained a total of seven contractual areas, six of them in a consortium and one individually.

Through the subsidiary production company Pemex Exploracion y Produccion, the state company won four blocks in the Southeast Basins: two in consortium with the French Total, one with the Anglo-Dutch Shell and one individually.

It also obtained three blocks corresponding to the province of Tampico-Misantla-Veracruz: two in association with the Compalla Espa?ola de Petroleo (CEPSA) and the German Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA) and one more in partnership with CEPSA.