MEXICO CITY, April 14 (Reuters) - Mexico's oil regulatorvoted on Thursday to improve the terms for its first-everdeepwater auction in December, giving energy companies andinvestors more flexibility to structure their bids as oil priceshave slumped over the past two years.
In a meeting that was webcast, commissioners of theregulator known as the CNH voted unanimously to allow companiesnot involved in the day-to-day operations of a deepwater oilfield to hold a larger stake than the project operator.
The previous rule required that the operator hold thelargest stake.
The CNH is set to auction 10 potentially oil-rich deepwaterblocks on Dec. 5.
"The importance of this rule is it provides flexibility toform consortia," CNH President Juan Carlos Zepeda said in aninterview following the vote. Companies form consortia to handlenearly all such projects to share the high risk and investmentneeded to drill and develop deepwater wells.
The previous auction rules required bidders to have at least$2 billion in capital per project. Zepeda said the changedefines that amount as an average over the past five years.
"Up until today, we hadn't defined this criteria," he said.
Crude prices have slumped about 70 percent since 2014,sharply reducing oil companies' cash flow and capital.
The regulator is taking these market conditions intoaccount, Zepeda said, by adopting a more relaxed rule thatshould enable more oil companies to meet the requirement.
Four of the 10 blocks up for grabs straddle the maritimeborder with the United States in the Perdido Fold Belt where oilmajors on the U.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. (Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Richard Chang)
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