The overseas arm of the country's largest oil and gas company, ONGC Videsh limited (OVl) on Saturday signed an agreement with Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) for co-operation in the latin American nation.
"Under the memorandum of understanding, the two companies plan to discuss future cooperation and collaboration in the upstream sector in Mexico. The MOU also envisages cooperation in the fields of technology, human resources, research and development," OVl said in a statement.
Mexico's potential oil and gas reserves, including shale, could be second only to the Arctic region in size and scope, and offer a wide range of opportunities for foreign firms in the wake of its reforms, according to a report by Ernst & Young (EY).
The report points to the potential for shale oil and gas extraction as a result of the country's energy reforms being implemented, with potential reserves of 60 billion barrels of oil, significantly more than the 14 billion barrels of oil and 481Bm cube of natural gas reserves that state-owned oil firm Pemex estimates.
Besides OVl, Reliance Industries ltd (RIl), too, is looking to invest in Mexico as North America's third-biggest producer courts foreign companies after a 76-year hiatus.
For 75 years, Mexico's oil production was firmly in the grips of Pemex, the state-run oil company. Mexico in December permitted private investment in the oil industry to help reverse a decade-long slump in output. Pemex plans to establish 10 joint ventures in mature, onshore and offshore areas by December 2015. It has fields holding an estimated 20.6 billion barrels.
OVl has participation in 35 projects in 16 countries, including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, libya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Vietnam. It currently produces about 160,000 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas per day and has total oil and gas reserves of 637 million tonnes of oil equivalent.