By Adriana Barrera
POZA RICA, Mexico, July 11 (Reuters) - Mexican state oilmonopoly Pemex got a dismal response to an auction of contractsat one of its main oil fields on Thursday, turning up pressureon the government to open up the industry to more privatecapital with an imminent reform.
Most bidders in the Chicontepec basin auction signalled theywanted a higher fee per barrel than Pemex was willing to givefor the private contracting scheme to turn around part of thebig field, which has consistently fallen short of expectations.
Pemex only successfully contracted half of the six blocksput out to tender, part of Mexico's efforts to find moreinvestment to boost flagging crude output. The two biggestblocks did not even attract bidders, the company said.
The lack of interest led to immediate calls for PresidentEnrique Pena Nieto to push for a reform that will make Mexico'soil industry more attractive for private investors when thegovernment presents its planned overhaul by early September.
"The process in this round has been a failure," said LuisMiguel Labardini, a partner with Mexico City-based energyconsultancy Marcos and Associates.
"This shows the new administration that what is reallyrequired in Mexico is a deeper reform."
The company also failed to attract bids from multinationaloil producers. While oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell both purchased project specifications, neitherultimately sought to qualify for the auction.
U.S. oil services giant Halliburton won the contractto operate the Humapa block, which contains 341 million barrelsof oil equivalent (boe) in proven, probable and possible (3P)reserves spread across 49 square miles (128 sq km).
And Mexico's Grupo Diavaz got the nod for the Miquetlablock, which contains 248 million boe in proven, probable andpossible reserves spread across 43 square miles.
REFORM PRESSURE
The Chicontepec auction marks the third round of thecountry's fee-per-barrel private contracting scheme, fruit of a2008 reform aimed at revitalizing aging oil fields andattracting long-term private investment.
The six blocks constitute about 15 percent of the basin'stotal reserves, or about 3.2 billion barrels of crudeequivalent, and cover 368 square miles.
Sixteen companies, nearly all oilfield service companies,pre-qualified for the auction.
The Chicontepec basin, discovered more than 80 years ago, islocated in the east-central states of Veracruz and Puebla and ishome to about 40 percent of Mexico's certified hydrocarbonreserves, or about 17 billion boe.
Last year, Chicontepec produced an average of 74,800 barrelsper day (bpd). Despite heavy investment, Pemex has failed tomeet production targets at the geologically complicated basin,where millions of barrels of oil are scattered across many smalldeposits, a feature that makes production costly and slow.
Boosting output is one of the chief aims of the government'senergy reform, which will be a major political challenge.
The Mexican constitution mandates that only the state canown and commercialize the country's oil and gas resources, butPena Nieto has promised a major overhaul of the industry toattract new investment from private oil companies.
His Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) must break withyears of tradition to go down that path, and will need supportfrom other parties in Congress, where it lacks a majority.
Pemex has been a symbol of Mexican self-sufficiency sincethe oil industry was nationalized by the PRI in 1938.
While details of the reform have yet to be revealed, aformal proposal is expected by Sept. 8.
Mexican crude oil production has fallen to just over 2.5million bpd from a peak of 3.4 million bpd in 2004.