Mexico will auction 14 contracts for licenses to explore and extract hydrocarbons from onshore areas as part of the third phase of its Round Two oil tender, the national oil regulator CNH recently announced. The blocks to be tendered include 25 fields and areas in the gas-rich Burgos basin, Tampico-Misantla, the Southeast basins and in the state of Veracruz, the CNH said. The contracts will be awarded in July 2017.
Hoping to reverse slumping crude output, Mexico ended the decades-long monopoly of national oil company, Pemex, in 2013. CNH Commissioner, Hector Acosta, said that one of the auction blocks is in a cross-border area and the contract winner would have to negotiate an agreement with Pemex, which is obligated to have at least a 20-percent stake in such fields.