HOUSTON: Mexican regulators began opening the final bids for 25 onshore oil fields Tuesday, as the country pushes forward with a privatization intended to revitalize its energy sector.
The onshore fields hold a smaller bounty of oil and represent less potential investment than some of the offshore fields presented in other auctions. But the bidding’s more accessible scale means that a large number of smaller, private Mexican oil and gas operators will for the first time have a way into the country’s oil and gas industry — giving the round an outsize symbolic importance for regulators hoping to create a vibrant Mexican industry.
The onshore fields span Mexico’s east coast and are concentrated in three regions in the north, central and south of the country along the Gulf of Mexico. Most of them contain fewer than 100 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Fifty-one bidders qualified to submit offers on the properties, including 33 individual companies and 18 consortiums. The majority of the companies are incorporated in Mexico, though a handful of companies from the U.S. and other nations also qualified.
Tuesday’s auction is the latest in a round of tenders the Mexican government launched following its December 2013 decision to break its state oil and gas monopoly. Previous rounds have offered up offshore or exploratory blocks, and bidding has mostly been limited the larger companies with the financial resources and expertise needed to drill offshore.
The bidding is being streamed live by Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos, or National Hydrocarbons Commission.
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