Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 6): National oil firm Petroliam Nasional Bhd's unit Petronas Carigali was among the winners of Mexico's deep water oil and gas (O&G) auction yesterday, according to a report.

Reuters reported that Mexico had on Monday auctioned eight out of ten deep water O&G blocks up for grabs in the Gulf of Mexico and scored a joint venture for a major crude field in the most hotly anticipated round of the country's energy opening so far.

It said China's Offshore Oil Corp took two of the eight blocks, while Australia's BHP Billiton outbid Britain's BP in a bid to partner with Mexican 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 US major ExxonMobil in the Perdido Fold Belt close to the US-Mexico maritime border for one and with Norway's Statoil and BP for two blocks in the Salina Basin further south.

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

"This underlines Mexico is very competitive in the oil and gas sector," Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell was quoted as saying.

Reuters cited the minister as saying that before the current administration ends in two years, Mexico will likely hold three more oil auctions for shallow and deep waters as well as onshore areas, probably including tenders for so-called non-conventional fields like shale.

Over the next decade, the fields auctioned on Monday could add some 900,000 barrels per day to Mexican output, said the national oil regulator head Juan Carlos Zepeda.

All told, fields containing an estimated 8.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent were awarded.

 

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