Petronas among pre-qualified bidders for Mexican oil field auctions

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) generic photo. Petronas flag blowing in the wind next to the Malaysian and Federal Territories flags at a Petronas station in Kuala Lumpur, seen in July 2015. (Pic taken by Hafidz Mahpar for Star Online.)

KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is among the individual bidders and among the members of the consortia pre-qualified to bid on Mexico’s first-ever deep water oil auctions, said Reuters.

A Reuters report said Mexico’s oil regulator announced on Monday a final list of 17 oil companies representing a dozen countries that had pre-qualified for the bidding next month.

The pre-qualified individual bidders, according to the article, are Australia’s BHP Billiton, Britain’s BP, China’s CNOOC, the United States’ ExxonMobil, Malaysia’s Petronas, Mexico’s Pemex, Norway’s Statoil and France’s Total.

The seven pre-qualified consortia are Atlantic Rim and Royal Dutch Shell; Eni and Lukoil; Murphy, Ophir, Petronas unit PC Carigali and Sierra Offshore Exploration; PC Carigali and Sierra; Statoil, BP and Total; Total and ExxonMobil; and Chevron along with Pemex and Inpex Corp.

Reuters said the auctions would mark the fourth phase of the so-called Round One tender, a major part of an energy reform launched in 2013 that ended the decades-long monopoly enjoyed by Pemex and aims to reverse a dozen years of falling crude output.