A March 10 analysis of Mexico’s Round One shallow-water opportunities found that production-sharing contracts will be the preferred type of contract, and that operators already qualified for the round must now fulfill a 10 Mbbl/d minimum threshold of production, said Wood Mackenzie research group.

Round One licensing includes nine shallow-water fields with a total of 356 MMboe of 2P reserves, Wood Mackenzie said, noting that none of the fields are on production, and are organized in five contract areas in the Salinas Sureste Basin.

Production sharing contracts with a 25-year duration will govern development areas. There could be two five-year extensions for EOR application, Wood Mackenzie added.

The appraisal phase will take two years.