The National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) signed today (28) the contracts for the five exploratory blocks finished in the 17th Round of Tenders, held on October 7 of last year. The blocks are located in the Santos Basin and cover an area of 3,425.50 square kilometers.
The auction raised a total of R$37.14 million in signature bonuses. According to the ANP, the areas have minimum exploratory investments estimated at around R$ 136.345 million.
The winning companies were Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. and Ecopetrol Óleo e Gás Ltda.. The two companies will now hold the rights to explore and produce oil and natural gas, individually or in a consortium, in blocks SM-1707 (Shell Brasil Petróleo), SM-1709 (Shell Brasil Petróleo – 70% and Ecopetrol Oil and Gas – 30%), SM-1715 (Shell Brasil Petróleo), SM-1717 (Shell Brasil Petróleo) and SM-1719 (Shell Brasil Petróleo).
Criteria
The 17th Round offered 92 blocks with exploratory risk, in the concession model, located in eleven sectors of four Brazilian sedimentary basins: Campos, Pelotas, Potiguar and Santos. In this concession format, the winning companies or consortia are defined by the criteria of signature bonus (80%) and minimum exploratory program – PEM (20%) offered by the bidders.
During the event, there were no offers for a sector in the Santos Basin, nor for all sectors in the other basins.
