Sources revealed in mid-October 2017, more details on the 12 licenses planned to be offered in the bid round be to be launched soon by the Mendoza provincial government. 10 of the offered blocks are exploration areas and two are development licenses. The exploration blocks are: Puesto Pozo Cercado Occidental, Los Parlamentos, Atuel Norte (Exploracion), CNN III Norte, Boleadero, Loma Cortaderal-Cerro Dona Juana, Ranquil Norte, CN-VII A, Loma El Divisadero and Chachahuen Oeste. The development licenses 62.68 sq km Puesto Pozo Cercado Oriental and the 40.5 sq km Atuel Norte licenses will also be included in the bid. These are carved out of the recently relinquished larger production licenses held by Medanito and Phoenix Global (former Andes Energia) and G&G (previously held by Tecpetrol & Petrolera Pampa) respectively with the remainder of these blocks offered as exploration areas. The Loma el Divisadero contract was also cancelled for Azabache Energy subsidiary, Argenta Energia, and could be included among eight exploration and four frontier exploration blocks after a US$ 30 million investment commitment was not filled by the operator. This first group of licenses will be for Technical Exploration Agreements (TEA) and focuses especially on areas with high exploration risk. The process will involve evaluation of current contracts and possible relinquishment of contracts where the work commitments are not being performed. As informed by Provincial Hydrocarbon Director, Santiago Gonzalez Herrero, the global investment commitments under this round will be over US$ 57 million. The contract structure will involve two exploration periods: the first will be three years, the second two years followed by two additional years of possible extensions to be applied to either of the previous periods. If exploration delays occur, increasing taxes will have to be paid. Once hydrocarbons are discovered, royalty rates could be increased over the standard 12% rate established by current law. In July 2015, the EMESA Mendoza Province 2015 2nd Bid Round was cancelled by the province due to insufficient interest from bidders. 
Argentina, Mendoza (CCyB-17)