Fieldwood Energy has signed a production sharing contract with Petrobal for two year offshore appraisal projects at Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, which has estimated reserves of 68m barrels of light crude oil and 92bcf of natural gas in deep waters, Maritime News reported.

The appraisal includes exploration drilling and technical evaluation process and it is an inaugural investment for Fieldwood Energy in Mexico. Fieldwood is a new Houston-based company that focuses on the acquisition and development of conventional oil and gas assets in North America.

Meanwhile, Schlumberger has announced that Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC has signed an agreement to license a large part of the WesternGeco Campeche wide-azimuth (WAZ) deepwater seismic survey in the south of the Gulf of Mexico. A fleet of eight vessels is to conduct the survey in the Bay of Campeche for the next three years, Oil and Gas Technology informed.

The two companies are among pioneers with other international bidders for 25 Mexican fields in a recently launched privatization campaign by the Mexican government that has opened bidding process for foreign investors after 75 years of domination in the oil industry by the state-run oil company, Pemex, Bloomberg reported.