A planned tender for a joint venture (JV) deep-water oil prospect in the Gulf of Mexico was cancelled on Thursday by Mexico’s oil industry regulator because of a lack of interest, according to Reuters.
CNH (Comisio Nacional de Hidrocarburos) called off the tender, which was intended to provide a partner for state oil company Pemex in developing the Maximino-Nobilis block, because there were no takers.
An auction had been planned for 31 January 2018.
Last month CNH had tried to make the JV more appealing by lowering Pemex’s stake from 49% to 40%. Joint ventures are relatively new in Mexico’s oil industry which used to be monopolized by Pemex.
Mexico has been opening up its oil industry to outside investment since 2013 as part of energy reform measures aimed at increasing the sector’s productivity.
The Maximino-Nobilis block is in the Perdido area, 15km from the marine border with the US and about 230km east of the state of Tamaulipas. It is estimated to contain more than 500 million barrels of crude oil equivalent.
