Brazilian bidding round set for November

April 20, 2006
Brazil's National Council for Energy Policy has approved 54 exploration areas for the country's eighth bidding round, scheduled for launch in late November.

Peter Howard Wertheim
OGJ Correspondent

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr. 20 -- Brazil's National Council for Energy Policy has approved 54 exploration areas for the country's eighth bidding round, scheduled for launch in late November.

Separately, a second round of bids for inactive areas with marginal accumulations is scheduled for May 31. That round will offer 21 inactive areas, of which three are in the state of Maranhão, in the Barreirinhas basin; 10 in Rio Grande do Norte state, in the Potiguar basin; and eight in the Espírito Santo basin.

National Petroleum Agency (ANP) Director Newton Monteiro said these mature, marginal sales involve territory from a total of 62 mature, marginal areas that state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA relinquished in 1998.

The aim of these marginal area bids is to rehabilitate oil fields by establishing a group of small and medium oil and gas producers in Brazil. Large companies consider the marginal areas uneconomic.

ANP conducted the seventh round last year with 1,134 exploratory blocks covering 397,616 sq km offered along with 17 marginal accumulation areas covering 96 sq km (OGJ, Nov. 7, 2005, p. 20).