According to a Wall Sreet Journal Article, State-owned oil monopoly Petróleos Mexicanos failed to attract much interest for an important round of production contracts Thursday, bolstering calls for a profound overhaul of Mexico's energy laws to attract international oil majors capable of unlocking huge oil and gas reserves.
Pemex, as the company is known, assigned service contracts for just three of six blocks at the geologically difficult Chicontepec onshore fields near the Gulf of Mexico. The company was forced to cancel tenders for three other sites, which were the largest of the six in terms of estimated oil reserves.
The bidding was watched closely here because Pemex was offering a new contract model created after a 2008 energy reform, in which contractors are paid on a per-barrel basis plus some of their costs, and offered bonuses for production above a set limit.
