Mexican regulators to delay deepwater auction

MEXICO CITY, July 18, 2017 – Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) will postpone its next E&P tender, the commission said Monday.

The decision was taken after a consortium of Talos Energy, Sierra Oil & Gas and Premier Oil made a large shallow-water discovery at the Zama prospect in Block 7. The companies said last Wednesday that the reservoir contains an estimated 1.4 billion-2 billion boe.

Hours after Talos announced the discovery, Eni also confirmed estimates for its Amoca prospect, located in the shallow-water Gulf of Mexico. The Italian major said that the field could hold up to 1 billion boe.

“There was already interest to come, explore and work in the Gulf of Mexico before these finds, but now to have discoveries in such a short time, interest of international entrants to have activity in Mexico has renewed,” CNH president commissioner Juan Carlos Zepeda told Bloomberg.

Because the CNH would like to allow more time for these discoveries to be evaluated, the country’s Round 2.4 bidding process for deepwater blocks will be held in January 2018. The auction was initially expected to take place in December 2017.

Next week, the commission is expected to release the bidding terms and block locations for the deepwater auction. Zepeda has said that Round 2.4 blocks could include acreage in three deepwater basins, including the Mexican side of the Cordilleras Basin, where Pemex’s giant Lakach field is located.

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