Statoil to drill offshore Mexico in 2018 at earliest

Statoil could drill its first well in the Salina Basin offshore Mexico in 2018 at the earliest, its exploration chief told Reuters on Tuesday.

Statoil on Monday was awarded oil exploration acreage offshore Mexico in partnership with BP and Total.

The companies won stakes in blocks 1 and 3 in the Salina Basin in Mexico's first round of deepwater exploration tenders, with a committment to drill one well in each block.

"I would say not earlier than in 2018," Statoil exploration chief Tim Dodson told Reuters when asked when the company could begin to drill offshore Mexico.

"We need to do more detailed mapping before deciding where to drill. This is truly a frontier area."

He declined to comment on Statoil's global drilling campaign for 2017, as the company has so far only publically confirmed plans to drill some five wells in the Barents Sea.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche)