Brazil plans for upcoming E&P auctions

Brazil’s oil regulator will auction 158 exploration blocks in 2018 under the country’s permanent offer system, local media reported Thursday.

The offered areas will include 90 onshore blocks and 68 offshore licences. The blocks will be the first of around 2,000 to be auctioned by the end of 2019 under the system, which includes blocks that have been either relinquished, abandoned, or not bid on in previous rounds.

“There may be mature fields that may not be commercially attractive to a particular large company, but can be commercially advantageous to a smaller company,” said ANP director Dirceu Amorelli during a press conference.

Companies will be able to submit proposals for blocks starting on July 19, on a continuous basis.

In other news, on Thursday regulators provided November 29 as a tentative date for an auction of Petrobras’ transfer of rights pre-salt acreage. Brazil’s lower house on Wednesday passed a draft law to allow the NOC to sell stakes in the acreage. The bill is expected to be approved by the Senate in mid-July, and signed by President Michel Temer in August.