Majors snap up Mexico's shallow-water offering

Industry heavyweights have piled in after large discoveries in the Sureste Basin, which has emerged as the country's most promising area outside the deep waters

Mexico saw strong interest from international oil companies in its last bid round before presidential elections in July which threaten to hamper energy reforms transforming the country's upstream. Of the 35 Gulf of Mexico shallow-water blocks put on offer this week, 16 drew winning bids, including from Total, Eni, Repsol, Shell and Mexico's state-owned Pemex. The clear standout area, as with last year's shallow-water round, was the Sureste (southeast) Basin, where all of the eight blocks offered up drew multiple competing bids. The Sureste Basin has been a reliable source of production for Pemex over the years, but more importantly has seen two major discoveries from foreign investors since