Production-sharing contracts for shallow-water exploratory blocks in Mexico will be granted for 25 years, Deputy Energy Minister Lourdes Melgar said. The 14 contracts will each have two renewal options of five years, Melgar said today in Mexico City. Terms for other development blocks will be announced in January, she said. The terms come a day after Mexico authorized bidding guidelines for new offshore blocks as the country prepares for investment in its newly opened energy industry. Before crude slumped below $60 a barrel for the first time in five years, Mexico had forecast private investment would bring in more than $50 billion by 2018. Mexico’s oil monopoly, held by state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos since 1938, ended last year after President Enrique Pena Nieto approved a bill to allow foreign producers to drill. Companies will pay 30 percent income tax on the shallow water blocks, Deputy Finance Minister Miguel Messmacher said […]