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(Adds unanimous approval, details on auction)
MEXICO CITY, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Contract awards for Mexico'sfirst-ever deep water oil auction covering ten potentiallylucrative blocks will take place on Dec. 5, oil regulator CNHsaid on Friday, a tender that will test investor interest amid aworldwide price slump.
The ten blocks are located in the country's territorialwaters in the Gulf of Mexico.
The auction date was approved by a unanimous vote of CNHcommissioners.
Four of the blocks straddle the maritime border with theUnited States in the Perdido Fold Belt where oil majors on theU.S. side, including Royal Dutch Shell and BP,have drilled dozens of commercially successful wells.
The remainder are located in the Salina basin along thesouthern rim of the Gulf.
Mexico's energy ministry will award license contracts,similar to concessions, in the historic opening.
The government will limit the auction to the deep waterblocks after initially announcing that heavy oil fields andseveral joint ventures with national oil company Pemex wouldalso be offered.
Winning bidders will not be required to drill wells duringthe first four years of the contracts, an element designed tolure cash-strapped producers facing crude prices near 12-yearlows.
The auction is the fourth phase of the so-called Round Onetender, a major part of an energy reform launched in 2013 thatended the decades-long monopoly enjoyed by Pemex and aims toreverse eleven consecutive years of declining crude output.
The previous three auctions, including shallow water andonshore mature fields, awarded 30 of the 44 contracts that wereoffered. (Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
