OREANDA-NEWS. November 29, 2016. Mexico unveiled a final list of oil companies and consortiums that are pre-qualified to participate in two closely watched auctions for deepwater Gulf of Mexico acreage on 5 December.

Major oil companies that have stayed on the sidelines of Mexico historic licensing process so far are keen to tap what is considered a frontier province, partly lying just over the border from prolific acreage on the US side of the maritime border.

For Mexico, the deepwater auctions are critical to snapping a decade-old trend of declining oil production.

On the day of the auctions, Mexico's National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) will first open proposals for the Trion field in the Perdido Fold Belt with proven, probable, and possible (3P) reserves of 480mn bl of oil equivalent (boe) that state-run Pemex is seeking to develop with private-sector companies.

Commissioners will then look at proposals for 10 other deepwater blocks that hold a total estimated 10.6bn boe.

This tender, the fourth in Mexico's first staggered bidding round, is seen as the upstream climax of a 2014 energy reform that ended Pemex's monopoly.

"In Mexico, about 50pc of conventional prospective resources are in deep waters but [the country] still hasn't started deepwater production, hence the importance of this tender," head CNH commissioner Juan Carlos Zepeda Molina said today.

Overall, 17 companies have successfully pre-qualified for one of the two coinciding auctions, eight of which will participate individually and seven in consortiums.

Individual participants are Australia's BHP Billiton, BP, China?s state-run CNOOC, ExxonMobil, Malaysia?s PC Carigali, Norway's Statoil and France's Total, as well as Pemex which will compete for the first time.

Consortiums include Shell and US-based independent Atlantic Rim; Chevron, Pemex and Japan's Inpex; Italy's Eni and Russia's Lukoil; US independent Murphy, the UK's Ophir, PC Carigali and Mexican independent Sierra; PC Carigali and Sierra; Statoil, BP and Total; and Total and ExxonMobil.

CNH did not indicate which of the firms and consortiums are designated to compete in either or both of the two auctions, information they say will be divulged on 5 December.

In order to encourage fair competition, firms were allowed to participate in more than one consortium as well as individually, but cannot present several proposals for the same area.

Commissioners separately noted advances made on the second staggered bidding round, known as Round Two.

In the first tender, known as Round 2.1, six firms have so far paid to access a set of geological data on the 15 shallow-water blocks on offer. These include Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Sierra, Statoil, the UK's Premier Oil and Spain's Repsol, which is conspicuously absent from the deepwater bidding roster.

The deadline to access the Round 2.1 data room is 11 January 2017.

Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Statoil have also begun the pre-qualification process.

The CNH says 10 companies have expressed interest in participating in Round 2.2 that will offer 12 onshore blocks.