The Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis or ANP) has unveiled the result of its 15th oil and gas licensing round held on 29 March 2018. A total of 70 blocks were auctioned in the sedimentary basins of Ceará, Potiguar, Sergipe-Alagoas, Campos and Santos and in the basins of Parnaíba and Paraná and 22 have been attributed. The government hopes to raise more than BRL8bn (US$2.4bn) in signature bonus and investments of BRL1.2bn (US$363m) in the projects' exploratory phase.
ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Wintershall, Chevron, Statoil and Qatar Petroleum were among the winners. ExxonMobil won a total of eight blocks, of which two blocks in the Santos area (ExxonMobil will be the operator, in partnership with Qatar Petroleum), four blocks in the Campos basin (with Petrobras and Qatar Petroleum) and two blocks in the Sergipe-Alagoas area (with Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção and Murphy Oil). Statoil, Shell and Chevron will take part in four blocks each jointly with other partners. Statoil and Chevron will be focusing on the Campos basin, while Shell will also explore the Potiguar basin.
The 4th Production-sharing Round, offering areas in the Pre-salt Polygon, is planned for 7 June 2018. Two new bidding rounds are planned for 2019: the 5th Production-sharing Round including areas in the Pre-salt Polygon (under the PSC regime) and the 16th Bidding Round of Blocks (under the concession regime).
Source: Statoil
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