Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) today signed 10 oil exploration and extraction contracts in the country’s shallow waters with companies from different countries, thus formalizing investments for $ 8.2 billion.
The contracts, with a 30-year term plus two possible extensions of five years, provide for the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons under the shared production modality in the oil provinces of Tampico-Misantla and Cuencas del Sureste, the regulator said in a statement.
The Commission noted that the area covered by these contracts amounts to 5,872 square kilometers and has prospective resources in the order of 2.420 million barrels of crude oil.
The agreements were signed with Germany’s Deutsche Erdoel AG (DEA), Colombia’s Ecopetrol, Capricorn Energy’s British partner Citla Energy, Italian-Russian consortium Lukoil International, Italy’s Eni Mexico and French-Dutch consortium Total México partner with Shell.
The contractors will have a maximum deadline of 180 days to submit to the CNH the exploration plan for each area for approval, said the director of the entity, Juan Carlos Zepeda.
Mexico’s Energy Secretary Pedro JoaquÃn Coldwell stressed that the contracts, which are part of the process of opening the energy sector initiated with the 2013 constitutional reform, formalize investments of US $ 8.2 billion during its term.
He assured that the investments will be reflected in the creation of more than 82,000 direct and indirect jobs and in a maximum production of 170,000 barrels of crude daily.
In case of success, the State would obtain a benefit of between 77.4 and 83.9%, said the head of the Energy Secretariat.
