Mexico Delays Oil Auction, Allows Investors To Assess Recent Finds

Mexico’s next offshore oil auction will be held in January next year instead of in December 2017 as initially planned, in order to give bidders more time to assess all new data in view of the recent huge finds in the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico, the head of Mexico’s oil regulator told Bloomberg in an interview published on Monday.

Last week, UK-based Premier Oil, along with its partners Talos Energy and the Mexico City-based Sierra Oil & Gas, said that they struck oil in excess of 1 billion barrels in the shallow waters in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

The very same day, Italy’s Eni—which had drilled a successful exploration well in Mexico’s shallow water, discovering much more oil than was anticipated—said that thanks to the results of a new offshore well, the major is raising its estimate of resources in place at Amoca to 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, “paving the way for the implementation of an accelerated development plan.”

Following these results, Eni will submit an accelerated and phased development plan in 2017 targeting an early production phase with a plateau ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 bopd with the start of operations planned for early 2019, the Italian group said.

“There was already interest to come, explore and work in the Gulf of Mexico before these finds, but now to have discoveries in such a short time, interest of international entrants to have activity in Mexico has renewed,” Juan Carlos Zepeda, head of Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission that oversees the industry, said in an interview with Bloomberg.

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“International and national interest is awakening,” the official noted, adding that Mexico would announce the areas up for grabs at the next auction “in a few days”. 

Oil majors are snatching up offshore blocks in Mexico, with the latest auction exceeding expectations. Mexico is planning to hold four more oil and gas block tenders by November 2018 as part of efforts to ensure the sustainability of its energy industry and make better use of its hydrocarbon reserves.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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