A total of 12 onshore oil and natural gas blocks will be on offer in the second auction of Round Two of Mexico's energy reform, the energy ministry announced Tuesday.
The blocks include 39 fields that have already been explored. In all cases, licenses will be on offer.
A total of nine of the blocks lie in the Burgos Basin, across the US border from Texas, and the nation's main source of non-associated gas.
Production of gas from Burgos has fallen below 1 Bcf/d in recent months. The remaining three blocks comprise two in the Chiapas Fold Belt, and one in the southeastern basins in the states of Tabasco and Campeche. All three have potential for both oil and natural gas.
Speaking at a press conference, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, the energy secretary, said that the main objective of Round 2.2 is to "extract both wet and dry gas so as to produce more ethane, propane and butane in order to benefit the petrochemical industry."
Mexican gas demand has averaged just over 8 Bcf/d over the past three months, peaking at 8.05 Bcf/d in June, according to Platts Analytics' Bentek Energy data. This represents a year-on-year build of 330 MMcf/d or 4%.
A substantial proportion of that demand is now being satisfied by a growing network of pipelines linking the US to Mexico.
Joaquin Coldwell said the Round 2.2 blocks are, at 340 to 480 square km, much bigger than those of similar blocks in Round One. He added that the ministry hopes to attract $5 billion from investment in 2.2.
Bids on Round 2.2 are to be placed on April 7, 2017. Results will be announced two days later.
Round 2.1 consists of 15 shallow-water southern Gulf of Mexico blocks on production sharing contracts, the ministry recently announced. Bids on 2.1 are to be presented on March 22.
Round One will be completed on December 5, when 10 blocks in the 1.4 auction are being auctioned in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, including the Perdido Fold Belt. A total of 26 companies, including the majors, have applied to bid and the government expects to bring in $44 billion in investment.
A fifth Round One auction was to have been held for shale and other unconventional areas, but was canceled due to concerns over the decline in oil prices.
The Round One auctions offered the first upstream contracts after 77 years of Mexico's state oil and natural gas monopoly that was ended by the 2013-14 energy reform.
