Getting ready for gas: Pemex to begin taking bids in September.
Coridon bidding to start in September
State-controlled Pemex will open the bidding round for the Coridon natural gas project in the Burgos reion in northern Mexico in September.
After companies submit bids, it will take Pemex around four months to pick a winner for the 15-year contract to develop the gas block.
Pemex began offering Burgos gas blocks in 2003 under long-term service contracts, attracting local and foreign oil companies.
"Given that the licensing round takes four months, we expect bidding to conclude in February, 2010," Pemex told Bloomberg.
In June, Pemex exploration and production chief Carlos Morales Gil announced the company will be offering a total of three new blocks in Burgos under the service model.
Each block is expected to produce 50 million to 100 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.
The Burgos basin produces 22% of Mexico's natural gas.
The existing service contracts at Burgos have had mixed results.
Spanish giant Repsol has halted any new drilling at a block it operates due to low production.
Oil executives say Brazilian state-run Petrobras and US player Lewis Energy have had better results at the blocks they operate.
An oil executive with a company operating a Burgos contract said all three firms have attended project meetings and plan to bid for the Corindon block, along with some local companies.
Mexico's Industrial Perforadora de Campeche and Grupo Diavaz currently operate Burgos blocks.
Burgos covers 50,000 square kilometers in the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon and hit record production of 1.52 billion cubic feet per day in late May.