Following the gradual selection of areas and fields that will be tendered for foreign and domestic companies (including Mexican government production companies), pursuant to the Mexican Energy Reform enacted last year, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos, “CNH”) published a formal call for the third bid of Round 1, “CNH-R01-L03/2015” in the National Federal Gazette on May 12, 2015. The bid includes twenty-six (26) onshore areas for extraction of hydrocarbons.

The CNH publicly announced that the twenty-six (26) areas are located in southern and northern Mexico and together could yield a potential production of 35,000 barrels of oil and 225 million cubic feet of gas per day. According to the CNH announcement, some of the areas have discovered mature fields that are currently producing.

The previous tendered areas were for shallow waters; this is the first bid including onshore areas for extraction of hydrocarbons. For more information on the other two previous bids, please refer to our previous alerts as set forth in the links below: