China has arrived on Mexico’s oil scene. The Financial Times reports CNOOC beat out Pemex in the Mexico’s first deepwater oil tender, winning a block in the Perdido Fold Belt in the Gulf of Mexico with a bid that was more than doubled that of Mexico’s national oil company, the only other bidder. CNOOC’s bold move into Mexico came with the offer of an additional royalty of 17.01% – way above the 3.1% threshold stipulated by the government and dwarfing Pemex’s 6.65% bid, writes Jude Webber in Mexico City. The Chinese state oil giant later scooped a second deepwater block in the Perdido Fold belt with another whopping bid after offering virtually five times the minimum royalty required. It was the only bidder for that block.