20-03-09 Spanish oil major Repsol-YPF has won the rights to explore 20 oil and gas prospects in the US Gulf of Mexico in bids worth a total of $ 48.5 mm, a company spokesman said.
Repsol submitted the highest bids for 20 of the 29 blocks it targeted and now participates in a total of 93 exploration and production licences in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The company is already pumping oil from its 28-% owned Genghis Khan field and expects to start production from its Shenzi field in the near future, the spokesman said.
The US Gulf of Mexico is one of Repsol's three core areas for upstream exploration, along with the Santos Basin in offshore Brazil and North Africa.