São Paulo – Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuel Agency (ANP, in the Portuguese acronym) announced this Thursday (23rd) that the First Round of Tenders for the pre-salt area will take place in October. According to a ANP press release, the process was due to occur in November, but has been moved to an earlier date by the National Council for Energy Policy (CNPE).
According to the ANP, the area to be tendered is Libra, in the Santos Basin, on Brazil’s southeast coast. The agency’s director-general Magda Chambriard said the area’s potential volume ranges from 26 billion to 42 billion barrels, of which 8 billion to 12 billion should prove recoverable.
According to the agency, the decision of moving the round to an earlier date was taken by the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday (22nd). As a result, the 12th Round of Tenders for onshore areas with potential for natural gas exploration has been postponed from October to November.
“Marlim, Brazil’s main oil-producing field, contains a recoverable volume of 2 billion barrels. The Roncador field contains 2.5 billion barrels. The area to be tendered is large, it speaks for itself. It is equivalent to these two fields and several others in the country, all combined,” said the director, according to the ANP release.
The tender round will be the first to follow the new shared production model that was designed for the pre-salt. Under this regime, the tender will be won by the company that offers the largest share of production to the government. Petrobras will retain at least 30% of all blocks, and will be in charge of operation.
Outside the pre-salt, the model in effect is concessions, by which the oil belongs to the concessionaire and the government is paid royalties and fees. The last round of tenders, held this month, raised R$ 2.7 billion (US$ 1.3 billion) from the winning companies, an all-time high.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
