MEXICO CITY, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Mexican billionaire

investor Carlos Slim said on Monday that his team is

reevaluating a deal inked with state oil company Pemex to

develop Mexico's first deepwater natural gas field, a project

long plagued by problems over its commercial viability.

The comments support a Reuters exclusive last month which

revealed that representatives of Slim's Grupo Carso and Pemex

have discussed changes to the deal in order to make the Lakach

project profitable, despite lower forecast gas prices.

"It's a complicated project that needs to be tackled by

great technicians," Slim said during a press conference in

Mexico City, adding that the depth at which the resource was

buried in the Gulf of Mexico made it more difficult.

"It'll depend on what is being built," he said when asked

repeatedly whether he was still interested in the field.

Pemex has already twice abandoned the Lakach project due to

prohibitive development costs.

Slim also reiterated the need for more investment in

infrastructure and that Mexico was importing the vast majority

of its gas from the United States.

Reuters reported that Grupo Carso wanted to add two nearby

fields with similar expected resources, Piklis and Kunah, to

increase the potential profitability of the venture, and was

even contemplating putting the project on ice.

In recent years, Slim has been increasing his investments in

the energy sector, with stakes in shallow-water fields Zama,

Ichalkil and Pokoch. Last year, his team met with Pemex

officials to discuss Lakach.

Located some 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the Gulf port of

Veracruz, Lakach holds an estimated 900 billion cubic feet of

gas. Pressure is low at the existing well there, making

production a challenge.

It needed a lot more investment, sources said, and was made

more complicated by low gas prices.