On Monday, June 19, a consortium of Mexican state company Pemex and German DEA (owned by LetterOne of Mikhail Fridman and his partners) won a tender for the development of the second region of the Tampico-Misantla field with a total reserves of 171 million barrels. Of the oil equivalent, the Mexican National Commission on Hydrocarbons reported. The second consortium - "Lukoil" and the Mexican "daughter" Eni offered conditions worse and lost.

Pemex has been exploring the field since 2012 and has discovered seven potentially interesting areas for mining. Among them, part of the Tampico-Misantla basin, located on the territory of the company's Burgos Gas field, contains oil and gas.

DEA and Pemex offered the state royalties in the amount of 57.92% of operating profit, while Lukoil and Eni - 55.14%. At the same time, DEA undertook to invest jointly with the partner in the development of the second section on a parity basis, while Lukoil and Eni were prepared to finance 75% of the project. How much proposed to invest DEA in the development of the field, is not specified. The representative of the DEA does not say this, it was not possible to contact the Pemex representative.

"The shelf of the Gulf of Mexico is a fashionable place, on the land of Mexican territory the reserves are depleted, there Lukoil is already working on the rehabilitation of one field," commented Sberbank analyst Valeriy Nesterov. Eni is already working on the Mexican shelf, in March 2017 it opened a "significant" field 7-8 km from the shore with estimated reserves of more than 100 million barrels. Of the oil equivalent. This spurred major companies to participate in the third competition, Nesterov continues. DEA has the technology to drill both in depth and in polar conditions, so that partnership with the company will be beneficial to Mexico, Nesterov said.

Focus on America

DEA has opened a representative office in Brazil, the company said. We are interested in long-term investments in the region, the words of the CEO of DEA Thomas Rappun are given. What they will be, neither he nor the representative has specified. In what projects the company intends to invest, the representative does not specify.

Foreign companies were expelled from Mexico in 1938, then Pemex was established on the basis of the nationalized assets of British and American companies, which began to control the entire chain - from oil production to the sale of gasoline at the gas station. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto changed the constitution five years ago, banning foreign concessions in oil production. The reserves of Mexico are estimated at 115 billion barrels. Of the oil equivalent. This is comparable to Kuwait, but more than half of them come from unconventional sources, including shale gas. According to Pemex, investments and production technologies provided by foreign investors will increase the proven reserves of Mexico's oil by 27 billion barrels.

DEA will not work at a loss, giving 57.92% to the state, while the investments will be on a parity basis, the analyst of Raiffeisenbank Andrey Polishchuk said. The company is unlikely to get involved in the development of the deposit, invest both money and technology without calculating the payback, he believes.

The first tender was held in July 2015, but its results were not justified: only 2 of the 14 blocks were sold. The second tender was held in September. The Mexican government sold three of the five auctioned oil blocks in the Gulf of Mexico. The right to the first block was given to the Italian Eni unit, the second to the consortium of Argentinean E & P Hidrocarburos and Pan American Energy, 60% owned by British BP, the third by the consortium of American Fieldwood Energy and Mexican Petrobal, The Wall Street Journal reported.