(Adds detail on contracts, comment from Mexico City-based
consultant, paragraphs 5-7)
MEXICO CITY, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Mexico's oil regulator fired
18 employees on Friday that formed part of a unit responsible
for supervising some 100 exploration and production contracts
won at auction by private companies including U.S.-based Exxon
Mobil Corp and Britain's BP.
The unit also oversees plans for several hundred leases
belonging to state oil company Pemex.
The regulator, known as the National Hydrocarbons Commission
or CNH, said in a statement the decision to terminate the 18
employees was due to a "lack of respect" for supervisors and not
"adhering to the rules."
The former employees are under investigation and the
supervision of contracts will not be affected, the statement
said.
Foreign and private oil companies have to date invested
about $3.6 billion in their contracts since the first auctions
were launched in 2015, according to CNH data, following a
landmark energy reform two years earlier that ended Pemex's
decades-long monopoly.
About 30 of the contracts won at auction are already in the
production phase.
"I hope these (personnel) changes don't delay the approvals
that are in process, and as a consequence, the work and
investments that have already been approved," said Mexico
City-based oil consultant Layla Vargas.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Tom Brown and
David Gregorio)