Brazil makes $1.7 bi from selling pre-salt blocks

The Fith Round of Production Sharing Bids in pre-salt areas ended this morning (Sep. 28) after all blocks were clinched by companies in the sector. The auction brings $1.7 billion in signing bonuses to Brazil’s government.

Four blocks were auctioned on the bays of Santos and Campos, with 12 firms having signed up for the bids.

Petrobras exerted its preferential right for the Sudoeste de Tartaruga Verde block, on Campos bay, but ended up being the sole bidder. The state-controlled oil giant offered the federal government the minimum percentage of 10.01 percent on oil production and will also have to pay $17.46 million as signing bonus.

The first area offered was the block Saturno, won by a consortium formed by foreign companies Shell and Chevron with a 200.23 percent premium on the minimum percentage of shared production with the federal government. The share requested in oil production was 17.54 percent, and the consortium bid 70.2 percent. In addition to this percentage, the government is to receive a signing bonus of $779 million.

As for the second block, the winner was the Titã consortium made up of ExxonMobil and QPI. The companies offered 23.49 percent on production, whereas the minimum bid had been set at 9.53 percent. In this case, the premium was 146.48 percent. The signing bonus for the federal government stands at $779 million.

The Pau-Brasil block was clinched with 63.79% and a premium of 157 percent on the minimum required. The winning consortium was formed by BP Energy (50 percent), CNOOC (30 percent), and Ecopetrol (20 percent).