The president of the Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute (IBP) said on Wednesday it is essential that a bill ending Petrobras’ onerous Subsalt Polygon obligations should be made law by the end of the year, according to Reuters.
Speaking at a conference in Sao Paulo, IBP chief Jorge Camargo said that if the bill does not pass it could have a damaging effect on offshore oil rights auctions planned for next year. The IBP is the oil industry association.
The Subsalt Polygon is a region offshore Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, believed to contain at least 176bn barrels of oil and natural gas.
Under current law Brazil’s state oil firm Petrobras is required to operate and provide 30% funding for any new developments in the Subsalt Polygon.
But Petrobras is the world’s most indebted oil company and has been hamstrung by a huge corruption scandal, making it ever harder to meet those Subsalt conditions.
A bill removing the heavy commitments from Petrobras passed Brazil’s upper house, the Senate, in February.
The lower house should get a chance to vote on it sometime after October 30. If it passes, as expected, it then will need only the approval of national president Michel Temer, who himself is facing investigation in the Petrobras bribery probe.
