Mexico's deepwater auction 'the jewel in the crown'

The fourth tranche of oil and gas blocks to be put out to tender as part of Mexico's round one, which include deepwater reserves, are "the jewel in the crown," the country's energy minister Pedro Joaquín Coldwell was quoted as saying.

The tranche will include exploratory blocks in deepwater off the coasts of Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Campeche, in the Gulf of Mexico, and extra-heavy proven and probable reserves, said Coldwell, according to El Financiero newspaper.

The tender, to be launched on July 15, also includes fields in areas in which state oil firm Pemex will be seeking to forge alliances with partners to harness the crude reserves it was assigned in round zero.

"We had put a 'chastity belt' on Pemex that paradoxically, weakened it instead of strengthening it by forbidding it to partner with private Mexican firms," the newspaper quoted Coldwell as saying at a conference at Mexico's industrialists' club.

The minister said the fact that Pemex will be seeking partners contributing capital and technology will make the tender very attractive.

All deepwater fields in the gulf with production potential will be put out to auction, and Pemex will seek strategic alliances with private equity firms to finance its E&P activities, the company's chief of exploration and extraction policies, Guillermo García Alcocer, said at the Mexico oil congress in Guadalajara earlier this month.

"We have already identified a large part of what we will be offering; what we're doing is studying each field in detail to see whether they are attractive to the state or will be offered to the private sector to develop," García Alcocer said.