A consortium led by Spain's Repsol including Germany's Wintershall DEA and Thailand's PTTEP have discovered two deepwater oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, the companies said on Monday.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has slammed the breaks on the energy market liberalization put in place by his predecessor, and has pursued a more nationalist energy agenda that limits the participation of the private sector.
The consortium said in a statement that the find was in the Polok-1 and Chinwol-1 wells, located in Block 29 of the Salina Basin, off the southeastern states Veracruz and Tabasco.
"Both wells confirm that the area has great potential," it said. The statement added that the reservoirs in Mexican waters are more than 200 and 150 meters deep, respectively.
Repsol has a 30% stake in the consortium while PC Carigali Mexico Operations, a Petronas subsidiary, has 28.33%. Wintershall DEA holds another 25% and PTTEP Mexico E&P Limited 16.67%.
The consortium said it would evaluate the data from the two wells to prepare an exploration plan that will better determine the size of the finds to be presented before the end of the year to the regulator, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Cynthia Osterman)