The government will auction seven oil exploration blocks in the pre-salt region this Wednesday (22). The process will be led by the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP), and 15 companies are qualified to participate in the public competition, including Petrobras.
The public session of the 3rd Cycle of the Permanent Production Sharing Offer (OPP) is scheduled to start at 10 am, at the ANP headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro.
OPPs are the means by which the government offers companies exploratory blocks in the pre-salt polygon ─ where the largest known oil reserves in the country are located ─ and other areas considered strategic by the National Energy Policy Council (CNPE), a multi-ministerial advisory body to the Presidency of the Republic.
The permanent offer put up to 13 blocks in dispute, but the companies expressed interest in participating in the competition for only seven of them, in the Santos and Campos basins, on the Southeast coast. Are on the radar:
- Santos Basin: Esmeralda and Ametista blocks;
- Campos Basin: Citrino, Itaimbezinho, Ônix, Larimar and Jaspe blocks.
As determined by legislation (Law 12,351/2010 and Federal Decree 9,041/2017), state-owned Petrobras has already expressed the right of preference to be the operator of 40% of the Jaspe block.
Among the qualified companies are three national and 12 multinationals of foreign origin:
- Brazilian: Petrobras, Prio and Brava Energia (still under the name 3R Petroleum)
- Foreign: BP (United Kingdom), Chevron (USA), Ecopetrol (Colombia), Equinor (Norway), Karoon (Australia), Petrogal (Portugal), Petronas (Malaysia), Qatarenergy (Qatar), Shell (Anglo-Dutch), Total Energies (France) and the Chinese companies Sinopec and CNOOC.
To participate, in addition to presenting a declaration of interest, companies present guarantees to the ANP that they are capable of taking on the projects.
Winner
In the sharing model, the company or consortium that wins the auction pays a fixed amount of signature bonus. So, it is not this bonus that determines the winner of the auction, but rather the portion of production surplus that the agent offers to the Union. Each block has a minimum percentage requirement.
This surplus that must be shared with the Union can be understood as the profit from production after paying costs.
Furthermore, the State receives taxes, royalties and special participation (in the case of large production fields).
Under the sharing regime, the Union’s interests are represented by the state-owned company Pré-Sal Petróleo (PPSA), headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME). It is PPSA that auctions the oil delivered by oil companies to the Union.
In the last PPSA auction, in June 2025, 74.5 million barrels of oil were sold, which means revenue of around R$28 billion for public coffers.
In contracts under the concession regime, used in other exploratory areas, the winner is the company or consortium that pays the highest amount, in signing bonuses, for the right to explore oil.
Permanent Offer
The Permanent Offer, whether in the sharing or concession model, is the main type of bidding for exploration and production of oil and natural gas in Brazil. The ANP explains that, unlike traditional rounds, this system allows for the continuous offering of exploratory blocks.
This way, over time, companies have the freedom to study the technical data of the areas and present offers at the time they consider most appropriate, without depending on rigid deadlines or specific bidding cycles.
“This flexibility has made the Permanent Offer an essential instrument to promote the competitiveness and attractiveness of the sector in Brazil”, argues the ANP.
Energy transition
Despite oil being a fossil fuel, which emits greenhouse gases, which cause global warming, the ANP points out that OPPs “integrate the process of energy diversification for a low-carbon economy”.
The regulatory agency linked to the MME presents three points in this regard:
- Pre-salt production has a lower carbon footprint compared to the world average;
- Contracts provide for measures to reduce the carbon intensity of exploration and production activities;
- Contract clauses determine mandatory investments in research, development and innovation, a large part of which is currently applied to projects related to the energy transition.
Equatorial Margin
The pre-salt auction takes place two days after Petrobras receives the license from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) to begin drilling in the Foz do Amazonas sedimentary basin, on the Equatorial Margina region in the north of the country identified as a new pre-salt layer, due to its oil potential.
Block FZA-M-059 had originally been purchased by the British BP in 2013.
In June this year, the ANP carried out the 5th Cycle of the Permanent Concession Offer (OPC)in which 34 blocks were purchased, 19 of which in Foz do Amazonas, one of the areas on the Equatorial Margin.
