On the heels on this week’s successful auction of 25 onshore blocks with modest oil and gas resources, Mexico’s Energy Ministry on Wednesday announced plans for a highly anticipated tender of deep-water exploration blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the U.S. side of the waterway. The ministry said the government’s fourth oil auction since a 2013 energy reform opened up the sector to foreign and private companies will be announced by the third quarter of 2016 and held within 90 days of that announcement. Officials had been promising details on the deep-water auction over the past several weeks, prompting industry speculation on the holdup. If commercial quantities of oil and gas are found on the Mexican side, the government would employ a license contract model that is similar to a concession used in other markets like the U.S. Mexico also allows production-sharing and profit-sharing contracts, […]