MEXICO CITY, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Contract awards for Mexico’s first-ever deep water oil public sale masking ten probably profitable blocks will happen on Dec. 5, oil regulator CNH stated on Friday, a young that can take a look at investor curiosity amid a worldwide worth hunch.

The ten blocks are positioned within the nation’s territorial waters within the Gulf of Mexico.

The public sale date was accepted by a unanimous vote of CNH commissioners.

Four of the blocks straddle the maritime border with the United States within the Perdido Fold Belt the place oil majors on the U.S. facet, together with Royal Dutch Shell and BP, have drilled dozens of commercially profitable wells.

The the rest are positioned within the Salina basin alongside the southern rim of the Gulf.

Mexico’s vitality ministry will award license contracts, much like concessions, within the historic opening.

The authorities will restrict the public sale to the deep water blocks after initially saying that heavy oil fields and a number of other joint ventures with nationwide oil firm Pemex would even be supplied.

Winning bidders is not going to be required to drill wells through the first 4 years of the contracts, a component designed to lure cash-strapped producers dealing with crude costs close to 12-year lows.

The public sale is the fourth section of the so-called Round One tender, a significant a part of an vitality reform launched in 2013 that ended the decades-long monopoly loved by Pemex and goals to reverse eleven consecutive years of declining crude output.

The earlier three auctions, together with shallow water and onshore mature fields, awarded 30 of the 44 contracts that have been supplied. (Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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