AmericasOffshore

Exxon wins eight offshore blocks in latest Brazil oil rights auction

Irving, Texas-based ExxonMobil won eight blocks offshore Brazil in the latest round of bidding for the country’s oil reserves on Thursday, according to Reuters.

It will operate six of the eight blocks, all of which it won in partnership with other firms.

The winning bids include one of $844 million that Exxon will share with Brazil’s state oil firm Petrobras and with Qatar Petroleum International. That block is in the Campos Basin.

Other successful bidders in this round include Chevron, Repsol, Shell, BP and Statoil.

Exxon has been playing catch-up on the other majors in terms of its assets offshore Brazil but has been rapidly making up for a slow start.

This round follows an auction in September 2017 when Exxon won 10 blocks and one in October 2017 when it led a consortium that won a pre-salt block in the Carcara field.

Before Thursday’s round a Brazilian court blocked the inclusion of two top-quality blocks. The country’s Ministry of Mines and Energy said on Wednesday that it tried to reverse the court ruling but would include the blocks in auctions later in the year.

The court’s decision was because it felt the government could make more from the areas if they were auctioned through production-sharing agreements rather than as concessions.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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