Viva la subasta

6 December 2016 By Martin Langfield

Despite withstanding months of attacks by the U.S. president-elect, the country found eager investors for its drilling rights. That’s helpful amid a looming trade war. Deals with BHP, Chevron and others could boost Mexico’s laggard crude output by almost half in a decade.

This content is for Subscribers only

Context News

Mexico auctioned eight out of 10 deepwater oil and gas blocks up for grabs in the Gulf of Mexico on Dec. 5 and found a joint-venture partner for a major crude field in the most successful round of the country's energy opening so far.

A unit of China's CNOOC took two of the eight, while Australia's BHP Billiton outbid Britain's BP in a bid to partner with state oil firm Pemex in the promising Trion light-oil field in the Gulf of Mexico. France's Total also made three winning bids, teaming up with U.S. major Exxon Mobil in the Perdido Fold Belt close to the U.S.-Mexico maritime border for one and with Norway's Statoil and BP for two blocks in the Salina Basin further south.

U.S. oil major Chevron, Pemex and Japan's Inpex combined to win a block while Malaysia's Petronas Carigali and private equity-backed startup Sierra Offshore Exploration also featured in two winning consortia, one fronted by U.S. independent Murphy and Britain's Ophir.

Juan Carlos Zepeda, head of Mexico's National Hydrocarbons Commission, said the country would add around 900,000 barrels per day of oil production in nine or 10 years from the deepwater fields auctioned on Dec. 5.

Email a friend

Please complete the form below.

Required fields *