Mexico held its first auction in 77 years in which foreign companies could bid on drilling rights, but most of the major oil companies chose to stay on the sidelines.

A consortium including Sierra Oil & Gas, a Mexican company, Houston-based Talos Energy LLC and Britain’s Premier Oil placed the winning bids on two of the 14 blocks put up for auction in the first of five phases of Round One of the auction.

The consortium’s bid included paying the government of Mexico 55.99% of the operating profit from the first block, and 68.99% of the profit from the second. Mexico had set a minimum of 40% of operating profits.

The first block covers 75 square miles of Gulf waters off the coast of Veracruz state, at a depth of about 101 feet. It is expected to produce light crude oil and dry gas. The second block covers about 179 square miles, at a depth of about 465 feet. It is expected to produce light crude.

Bidding was light in the auction. No offers were submitted on several blocks, and bids on other blocks did not meet minimums set by Mexico for profit-sharing and capital investment.

Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total SA were among the global oil companies that did not participate in the initial round of bidding.  Later auctions will include deep-water reserves in the Gulf as well as onshore reserves and shale-rock formations, which are expected to be of more interest to larger companies.

Petróleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, the state-owned oil company, had announced that it would not participate in the first round of the auction. It obtained 83% of Mexico’s reserves in a so-called “Zero Round” of non-competitive bidding in 2014.

The auction followed a change in Mexico’s constitution and energy laws last year that opened the country’s energy market to foreign companies for the first time since 1938.

Mexico is hoping foreign participants will help it increase its oil production, which has declined from 3.4 million barrels per day in 2004 to 2.3 million barrels today.