Mexico awarded three out of five offshore production-sharing contracts on Wednesday in the second phase of its oil sector opening, comfortably beating the disappointing results of the first phase and giving a boost to the peso. The auctions, part of a series aimed at reversing years of falling oil output, this time met the government's expectations and handed potentially lucrative contracts to Italian energy group Eni and two consortia, Reuters reported. The fields on offer had already been discovered by state oil company Pemex, lowering geological risks for private operators. Eni won the contract for the Amoca, Mizton and Tecoalli fields while a consortium of US-based Fieldwood Energy and Mexico's Petrobal secured the Ichalkil and Pokoch fields. The contract won by Eni boasted the biggest fields on offer at a combined 67 square kilometers and the largest amount of remaining oil resources at 628 million barrels. In July, the first phase of Round One only awarded two of 14 contracts on offer, falling well short of the government's modest expectations.
