Mexico will offer contracts to foreign companies in its recently opened oil and gas industry by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, according to Deputy Energy Minister Enrique Ochoa, Bloomberg wrote Jan. 15.

Companies will be allowed to bid on fields for exploration and begin developing infrastructure and operations as soon as late next year, Ochoa said in an interview at the Energy Ministry offices in Mexico City. Prior to granting operating licenses to foreign and local companies, the legal framework has to be determined and state oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos must select the fields it plans to continue to develop, he said.

“We estimate that by the end of 2015 or beginning of 2016, we could be in the stage of implementation,” Ochoa said. “We must be professional and careful with the necessary institutional development prior to the following rounds.”

President Enrique Pena Nieto enacted an energy law on Dec. 20 that ends the 75-year production monopoly held by Pemex, as the state oil company is known, and allows foreign companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) to produce oil. The overhaul could bring an additional $20 billion foreign direct investment as soon as 2015, according to Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC)

Pemex has right of first refusal on the production areas it will maintain and is well positioned to seek joint ventures in mature oil fields to replenish diminished production, Ochoa said. The new law also opens joint venture opportunities with Pemex and private companies in refining and petrochemicals.

Mature Fields

“There is a sufficient amount of mature fields to consider association options to be able to extract more oil and gas,” Ochoa said. “Reactivating mature fields could bring national and international investment.”

Pemex, the world’s fifth-largest oil producer, pumped an average of 2.523 million barrels a day in 2013, the ninth consecutive year of declines. The energy industry overhaul is forecast to increase the annual output of Pemex to as much as 4 million barrels a day by 2025, according to the law.