MEXICO CITY — A consortium of one Chinese and two Mexican companies on Wednesday won a contract to explore and extract hydrocarbons from a field in eastern Mexico.

The consortium, which consists of three companies - China's Shandong Kerui, and Mexico's Sicoval MX and Nuevas Soluciones - obtained the contract for Area Six, a field of 193 square kilometers in the Veracruz oil belt, which has potential to provide liquefied gas.

The award was a close-run affair after the consortium presented a proposal which was equal to two other bids in terms of investment.

However, the Sino-Mexican consortium offered to pay $2.179 million in cash for the contract, a superior sum to its competitors, Mexican firm Carso Oil and Gas and a consortium of four American and Mexican companies.

According to Mexico's National Commission of Hydrocarbons, the Chinese firm is a subsidiary of the Kerui oil firm, dedicated to oil and gas exploration and production.