PRESS: Rosneft may bid for shallow marine shelf site in Mexico

MOSCOW, Feb 28 (PRIME) -- Russian oil major Rosneft is finishing its study of sites located on the shallow marine shelf of Mexico and may bid for them at an auction slated for the summer of 2017, Kommersant business daily reported on Tuesday citing sources.

Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) plans to auction 15 contracts under production sharing agreement conditions in late June. Companies should decide on their participation in the auction until the end of March, the business daily said.

Previously, Rosneft studied the U.S. sector of the Gulf of Mexico together with U.S. company ExxonMobil, but the companies rejected a project for development of 20 sites as they found no commercial reserves there. A source told Kommersant that Rosneft will participate in the auction for the Mexican shelf in consortium as well, as risks are too high.

Rosneft will bid only for shallow marine shelf sites as production on the deep-sea shelf may be blocked by the U.S. sanctions, while on-land sites in Mexico are not interesting for the company, the source said.

Currently, the only Russian company interested in production in Mexico is Lukoil. The company has 50% in an operator of the Amatitlan project, and participated in an auction for one of the deep-sea blocks in December 2016 in a consortium with Italy’s Eni, but lost, Kommersant reported.

Lukoil and Rosneft declined to comment.

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