Web alert: Mexico's National Hydrocarbons Commission begins the bidding round for shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mexican National Hydrocarbons Commission has recently made available the bidding and contract terms for the first 14 oil and gas areas in shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico. This signalled the first phase of Mexico’s bidding round for the exploration of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of the states of Veracruz, Tabasco and Campeche in southeast Mexico. Accordingly, these contract areas are predicted to have light crude oil with low production costs. There are different minimum investment obligations for each contract area.

The first round of the bidding process is split into five different phases:

• Shallow waters
• Terrestrial 
• Deepwater
• Extra-heavy Oil 
• Chicontepec Basin and Unconventional Resources.

The bidding round followed as a result of Mexico’s historic energy reform bill in 2013 in which various energy reform legislation formally became law in August 2014 and subsequently saw the end of Pemex’s long-held monopoly in the country’s oil sector.

The deadline for interested candidates to submit their bids for the 14 oil and gas areas is 15 July 2015. For more information please visit the Mexican National Hydrocarbons Commission’s website.