São Paulo – A consortium comprising the state-run Qatar Petroleum and the United States’ ExxonMobil placed the winning bids for two Santos Basin and two Campos Basin oil blocks, in the 15th bidding round held by Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) this Thursday (29). In all, 22 offshore blocks were put under concession, grossing a combine BRL 8 billion – a 621.9% premium over the BRL 2.8 billion minimum bid price.
The Santos Basin blocks are block 536 and 647, both in the state of Rio de Janeiro, with operator ExxonMobil Brasil retaining 64% and Qatar Petroleum subsidiary QPI Brasil holding a 36% share. The bid made by the winning consortium for those two blocks was BRL 1.145 billion.
Another consortium, comprising QPI Brasil with 30%, Petrobras with 30% and ExxonMobil with 40%, won the bids for Campos Basin blocks 753 and 789, amounting to BRL 3.154 billion total. The ANP said the signature bonus payment on block 789 was the highest ever at BRL 2.82 billion.
“The auction exceeded all expectations. We had diversity of operators, geographic diversity and extraordinary bonuses,” a press release quoted ANP CEO Décio Oddone as saying.
The press release also quoted Qatar Petroleum president and CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi: “We are pleased with the outcome of the bid round, which has enabled an expansion of our footprint in Brazil, in one of the most prospective basins in the world.”
He also said this was the second time in six months that Qatar Petroleum won oil exploration bids in Brazil – the first one was in October 2017, in a consortium with Shell and China National Offshore Oil Corporation. Latin America is “an important core area for Qatar Petroleum,” he added.
Bids were made by a total of 13 companies from 11 countries. Contracts are expected to be signed by November 30.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
