The Mexican oil regulator Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH) has awarded nine of the eleven fields offered in the first deepwater oil auction. The tender included the promising Trion field (485 mboe of reserves) and ten separate deepwater fields, including four clustered around Trion, south of the maritime border with the United States.
BHP Billiton outbid BP by US$18m, offering US$624m for a 60% stake in the blocks AE-0092 and AE-0093 containing the Trion discovery; national oil company Pemex will retain a 40% interest in the blocks. An estimated US$11bn is required to develop the Trion field, which could produce 120,000 bbl/d by 2025.
Four blocks were offered in the Perdido basin: CNOOC won two blocks while a consortium of Total and ExxonMobil and a consortium of Chevron - Pemex - Inpex won the two other blocks in this area. Six blocks were offered in the Salina basin further south. The consortium of Statoil - BP - Total won two blocks; PC Carigali (Petronas) and Sierra won a block as a consortium and will take part to the consortium winning the area 5, with Murphy and Ophir. The fields are expected to hold 8.4 Gboe of reserves and to add 900,000 bbl/d of crude oil production over the next decade.