LONDON (Alliance News) - MX Oil PLC shares rose on Wednesday after it secured four out of the five concessions it applied for under the landmark licensing round held in Mexico and believes the assets will be "transformational" for the company.
MX Oil shares were trading up 21% to 2.51 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
MX Oil applied for five of the 25 onshore land contract areas that were available under the licensing round, which was significant as it signalled the re-opening of Mexico's energy sector to foreign companies after 76 years of a state monopoly.
MX Oil is working with its partner Geo Estratos in the country, where it has now secured four concessions in the Veracruz region. Those concessions are Tecolutla, Ponton, La Laja and Paso de Oro.
The other concessions awarded to other companies lie in the states of Chiapas, Nuevo Leon, Tabasco and Tamaulipas.
The size of the potential resources within the areas acquired is unknown, but back in May the company said it was targeting up to 100.0 million barrels of oil equivalent.
MX Oil Chief Executive Stefan Olivier said: "We are delighted with this outcome after two years of hard work in Mexico with our partner Geo Estratos. We undertook significant work in our assessment of these blocks and we are thrilled to have been successful in acquiring all our primary targets in an area that our team understands very well. These blocks, given their proximity to each other, provide logistical synergies and cost savings that further enhance the project economics of any single block."
"We believe that the reserves in these blocks are potentially far larger than initially assumed, and we expect to confirm this by commissioning a competent persons report in the near term. We believe these concessions will be transformational for MX Oil and we look forward to releasing further information regarding these assets in due course," he added.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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