Pemex awarded 83% of 2P, 21% of prospective reserves

Mexico's energy ministry (Sener) awarded state-owned firm Pemex 83% of the country's proven and probable (2P) reserves, but only 21% of the country's prospective reserves.

The ministry assigned 100% of the 2P reserves the company has asked for in March, as part of round zero, which will also lay out which areas will be made available to international players in round one.

Pemex was granted 67% of the prospective reserves it requested. Much of Mexico's unproven reserves are located in deep water, which is not an area of expertise for Pemex.

The company was awarded acreage covering nearly 90,000km2, with the potential to produce 20.6Bboe, equivalent to 15 years of production and 5 years of exploration at an output rate of 2.5Mb/d.

Pemex's immediate future is guaranteed, and it will continue to be the big business of Mexico, energy minister Pedro Joaquín Coldwell was quoted by local radio as saying.

Mexico's national hydrocarbons commission (CNH) announced in June it would put up to 30 blocks of oil fields up for tender in a first round of bidding, scheduled to take place in 1Q15.