Canacol Energy Ltd. (TO: CNE.TO, OTC: CNNEF), a Canadian company exploring for oil and gas in Latin America, is set to bid for Mexican fields after obtaining funding from private investors and finding two local partners, Bloomberg said Sept. 15.

The explorer, based in Calgary, Alberta, plans to acquire two to three onshore conventional fields in Mexico’s Round One auction scheduled for early 2015, CEO Charle Gamba said in an interview. He declined to provide further information on the funding and joint ventures.

“We are very advanced with respect to what we’re doing in Mexico,” Gamba said Sept. 15 at his office in Bogota. “We’ve got all the financial backing lined up out of North America. It’s as large as we need and will be provided by private equity.”

Mexico is opening its energy industry to private companies for the first time since 1938, sparking interest from major producers including Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and Colombia’s Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. (TO: PRE.TO, OTC: PEGFF).

“We’ve always been interested in Mexico,” Gamba said. “The opportunity there is phenomenal.”

The two Mexican oil-service companies Canacol is partnering with will help meet local content requirements, while Canacol will provide the financing and operational expertise, he said.

Gamba also expects rising demand for the natural gas it produces in Colombia, with three large buyers expressing interest in its supplies, in addition to a utility that that signed a new contract to buy from Canacol this month.

Canacol will meet existing gas contracts with production from the Nelson and Palmer fields in northern Colombia by drilling a further six wells there. It plans to sign new contracts if exploration at the Corozo and Canandonga prospects, planned for October and December, is successful.

“All of the indications from the seismic suggest that Corozo and Canandonga are exactly like Palmer-1, so we have a very high degree of confidence that they will contain gas,” Gamba said. “We already have an indication that the contracts for sales are lined up, so we can commercialize any discoveries very quickly.”

Canacol will sell gas at $8 per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) under a contract announced Sept. 11. Its future contracts are likely to be above $10/Mcf , as growth in demand outstrips supply in Colombia, Gamba said.