New Delhi, June 19: ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of ONGC, will be bidding for oil and gasfields in Mexico.
The state-owned company has been shortlisted along with global majors such as Chevron, Shell and Total for the bidding.
Mexico is offering 15 shallow-water exploration blocks in the second round of hydrocarbon auction. These blocks cover a combined area of 8,908 square km and hold prospective resources of 4 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas.
Analysts said low exploratory risks and decades of offshore development in the region will provide enticing conditions for medium as well as major companies.
Of the 15 areas, 10 are for exploration and five for production. Their size is significantly larger than the previously auctioned shallow-water blocks in round one. Blocks 1-4 in Tampico-Misantla offer a total of 796 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of unrisked, prospective resources. The areas contain mostly light oil and dry gas.
Block 5 in the Veracruz basin is a wet gas-bearing area with 215.6 million boe of resources.
Blocks 6-15 are located in Cuencas del Sureste off the coast of southern Veracruz and Tabasco and together offer 1.5 billion boe of resources, ranging from light to heavy oil as well as one wet gas (block 15), they said.
Mexico's upstream regulator CNH had prequalified 36 bidders for the second round, industry sources said. Of these, 20 have been selected to participate individually. These include OVL and other global giants such as Chevron, CNOOC of China, ConocoPhillips, Ecopetrol, Italy's ENI, Lukoil of Russia, Repsol of Spain, Shell, and Total of France. The other 16 shortlisted are to bid in consortiums.
Sources said while most energy majors have been paired with smaller companies, OVL will be bidding alone.
Of the blocks on auction, four are the largest: Block five with 466 million boe, Block 11 with 426 million boe, Block 4 with 403.9 million boe and Block 12 with 409 million boe.
In 2015, OVL was among the 19 companies and seven groups that pre-qualified to bid for Mexico's maiden offshore oil blocks auction. It was, however, unsuccessful in getting any block.
