Seven consortiums and 18 individual companies have qualified for the auction.
US giants ExxonMobil and Chevron, Anglo-Australian firm BHP Billiton, India’s state-run ONGC Videsh Ltd, Russia’s Lukoil, France’s Total and Chinese-owned Nexen are among the firms bidding individually.
Some of the consortiums include Italy’s ENI, Thailand’s Petronas Carigali and new Mexican firms.
The legislation breaks the monopoly on drilling held by state-run firm Pemex since the industry’s 1938 nationalization.
While Pemex qualified for the auction, it will sit out this time.
Pena Nieto hopes the reform will reverse years of declining production — from 3.5 million barrels per day in 2004 to 2.3 million now — and give a boost to the economy.
Oil auctions are a new thing for Mexico and officials said they wanted to make them the most transparent in the world. The event will be shown on a live Internet broadcast.
The companies will bid without knowing beforehand the minimum percentage that the government will want to earn for each project.
Analysts say the government made an effort to create a transparent system to ease any concerns over the country’s poor track record when it comes to corruption.
