Brazil’s oil regulator ANP on Wednesday presided over an oil and gas rights auction that included some record-setting bid amounts.
A total of 20 firms were involved in the bidding with 17 of them successful. Ten of those were Brazilian and seven from other countries.
The blocks involved were a mix of offshore and on land. Of 287 blocks available, 110 were offshore and 37 were acquired by oil companies.
Most notable of the successful bids was a $700 million one from a consortium jointly owned by Brazil’s state oil firm Petrobras and US giant ExxonMobil. Each has a 50% stake in the block, C-M-346 in the Campos Basin.
In all, the auction bids raised a record $1.19bn for Brazil.
Other offshore blocks on offer were in the Pelotas, Santos, Espirito Santo, Sergipe-Aalagoas and Campos basins.
Brazilian authorities had simplified the regulations for this, the 14th such auction, to make it more appealing to potential bidders.
