No companies offered bids to explore Mexico’s Corindon-Pandura natural gas block in the Burgos Basin, and a spokesman for Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said Wednesday that it would consider whether to open a new bid process or assign it to a specific company.

Under its new Multiple Service Contract (MSC) plan, Mexico’s state oil monopoly opened up bidding on seven blocks of the gas-rich basin that borders Texas’ border to offer private companies the opportunity to explore for non-associated gas. Three blocks already have been tendered, but Pemex only received one bid for each of them (see Daily GPI, Nov. 3; Oct. 24). Pemex had planned to tender all of the bids by Nov. 19.

Sergio Guaso, who is in charge of Pemex’s MSCs, told Reuters, “this is not good news, but it is not the end of the project.” He said Pemex may re-bid the block, resize it and reevaluate the scope of the contract or assign it directly to a specific company.

Pemex will review why the block did not receive bids and then meet with potential bidders to decide how to proceed. The three remaining blocks will be auctioned on schedule, he added.

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