The first package of licenses for work in the shallow waters off the coast of Mexico is coming as the government weighs the market for crude, an official said.
Mexico is holding a licensing round for shallow water acreage in its territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico. An official in the oil sector told Argus energy news media the round was timed with slumping oil prices in mind.
"The portfolio of blocks and timing of the tender are being adjusted to take the oil price decline into account," the official said Wednesday.
The government is auctioning off rights to 14 tracts covering an estimated 2,600 square miles with reserve estimates of around 686 million barrels of oil equivalent, with most of that existing as light crude oil.
The blocks lie in shallow waters of only a few hundred feet and the government estimates average production costs of around $20 per barrel.
John Padilla, managing director for oil consultancy IPD Latin America, told the Wall Street Journal last week the government was downplaying its expectations despite low production costs.
"They're saying that it's all about oil prices, but it's also about recognizing that the amount of work involved in launching a bid round is tremendous and that could have factored into this as well," he said.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto set a goal of producing 3.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2025, which would be a 40 percent increase from 2013 levels.
The president has opened Mexico up to private investors after more than 70 years under a monopoly controlled by state-run Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.
The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Energy Department, said those reforms are expected to translate into production gains for Mexico.
