RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil awarded only 14 percent of 266 blocks on offer in an auction of crude and natural gas concessions, a licensing round in which neither state-controlled Petrobras nor foreign multinational energy majors submitted bids.
The vast majority of the 37 onshore and offshore blocks awarded in the auction were won by small Brazilian firms, the ANP regulator said.
Argentina’s Oil m&s, which was awarded oil and natural gas E&P concessions for two blocks in the onshore Reconcavo region (in the eastern state of Bahia), and Panama’s Petrosynergy, which acquired rights to a block in that same region, were two exceptions.
A consortium led by Brazil’s Parnaiba Gas Natural with a 65 percent stake and also including French electric utility Engie (formerly GDF Suez) as a 35 percent minority partner acquired licenses for two blocks in the Parnaiba River basin.
Engie also was a minority partner in a consortium led by Canada’s Alvopetro that acquired four blocks in Reconcavo.
The only large company that bid in the auction was Brazilian construction group Queiroz Galvao, which won two deep-water blocks off the northeastern state of Alagoas.
Those blocks were the only offshore areas awarded on Wednesday.
In total, only 18 firms from five companies submitted bids in the auction even though 37 companies from 17 countries had been qualified to participate.
Like Petrobras, multinational oil giants Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Total and China National Offshore Oil Corporation also did not present any offers.
The ANP raised just 121.1 million reais (some $30.3 million) from the 37 blocks sold. The combined total of the the minimum bids for all the blocks on offer was 978 million reais ($244.5 million).
Licenses for areas in 10 different Brazilian oil basins were on offer but only four attracted interest: Reconcavo, Parnaiba, Potiguar and Alagoas.
Among the small Brazilian companies that acquired E&P rights were OP Energia, BPMB Parnaiba, Vipetro, Imateme, VTE, Geopark, Tarmar Energia and Tek.
Analysts had been expecting a poor result due to low oil prices, Brazil’s recession and a massive corruption scandal centered on Petrobras, which has seen its access to financing restricted and been forced to carry out a divestment plan to reduce a massive debt load.
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