June 11 (Reuters) - Initial engineering design work for

developing Mexico's Zama offshore oil project has been awarded

to French engineering and project management firm DORIS Group,

one of the partners in the development said.

The deepwater Zama field, which is estimated to hold up to

735 million barrels of oil, will require two offshore platforms,

connections and a new onshore facility. The partners in the

project are Mexico's state oil company Pemex, Wintershall Dea,

Talos Energy ( TALO ) and Harbour Energy ( PMOIF ).

Talos Chief Executive Tim Duncan had told investors in a

conference call in February that some of the engineering design

work was taking longer than planned, but the company was happy

with the direction it was taking.

"Zama is currently one of the most important energy projects

in Mexico, and we are very pleased to have reached the next

milestone", Martin Jungbluth, managing director of Wintershall

Dea in Mexico, said in a release on Monday.

The Zama partners plan to soon tender the engineering,

procurement and construction contracts, followed by a final

investment decision, whose date was not disclosed.

The DORIS contract covers planning for the two offshore

platforms, 68 kilometers of pipelines and cables, and onshore

facility at the Dos Bocas terminal in the Southeastern state of

Tabasco.

DORIS will collaborate with the two Mexican engineering

companies, Nomarna and Summum, to carry out the front end

engineering design (FEED) work. The value of the contract was

not disclosed.

Mexico's oil regulator earlier this year approved budget

changes to the flagship project, to be operated by Pemex, which

cut planned expenses to under $70 million this year, from more

than $1.24 billion.

Talos, which in 2017 discovered Zama's oil deposits, had

wanted to operate the deepwater Gulf of Mexico project, but

Mexico's authorities gave Pemex the right to be the operator.