The company said that Blocks 2 and 7, which it was awarded, contain numerous leads in established and emerging plays, located in the shallow water Sureste Basin, which is a proven and prolific hydrocarbon province in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell said the estimate was in line with global experience.
While foreign firms have eagerly-awaited this moment, the government has played down expectations of a big sale, predicting that between a third and half of the 14 blocks will be awarded.
The underwhelming result adds to a bad week for Pena Nieto following the embarrassing fallout of the weekend jailbreak of the country’s most powerful drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – his second escape in 14 years.
“We won ” t squander the nation ” s oil resources”, he said. The glut in the market has made global oil and gas companies more selective with their investments.
The landmark deal is expected to put even more downward pressure on low crude prices, as Iran is preparing to flood an already oversupplied market with more oil and gas.
“It’s bad. It’s a failure”, David Shields, a Mexico-based industry analyst and director of the magazine Energia a Debate, told AFP.
“This is the first chapter of a story that will have many more events”.
Only nine companies took part in the auction, fewer than the 25 originally planned.
U.S. giants ExxonMobil and Chevron, Anglo-Australian firm BHP Billiton, France’s Total and Russia’s Lukoil made a decision to skip the shallow water projects.
Some of the consortiums include Italy ” s ENI, Thailand ” s Petronas Carigali and new Mexican firms.
This auction marks the first steps toward reform of an industry which has been monopolised by state firm Pemex since nationalisation in 1938.
[ July 16, 2015 12:18:00 ].
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San Francisco: Mexico’s historic first open oil-rights auction failed to hit pay dirt on Wednesday, sputtering and bubbling instead as only two of 14 available oil and gas blocks received bids.
