San Francisco: Four overseas-linked companies have pulled out of the running for the first auctioning of Mexico’s oil sector rights, the country’s oil regulator CNH announced on Monday.
The Mexican units of US firm Noble Energy and Anglo-Swiss company Glencore, plus Colombia’s national oil firm Ecopetrol and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production all decided to pull out of July 15’s auction for shallow water exploration blocks on the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.
No reason for the firms’ withdrawals was given on Monday.
When the Mexican government announced the auction in May it marked the first time since 1938 that the country would allow foreign private firms access to its oil and gas fields.
As well as the 14 shallow-water blocks up for grabs in July, nine more will be open for bidding in September, plus 26 onshore blocks in December.
The tender for next week’s opening auction has been reduced to 18 individual operators and seven consortia.
