The ANP has published in the Official Gazette, a list of 13 companies qualified for the 6th Production Sharing Round. They were qualified at a meeting of the Special Bidding Committee (CEL) held on October 2.

Four other companies expressed interest in participating in the round and the next Commission meeting to judge the qualifications is scheduled for 10/14. With this, the 6th Production Sharing Round may have the largest number of companies qualified in bids under the production sharing scheme.

Companies qualified so far:

1. BP Energy do Brasil Ltda.
2. Chevron Brasil Oil and Gas Ltda.
3. CNODC Brasil Petróleo e Gás Ltda.
4. CNOOC Petroleum Brasil Ltda.
5. Ecopetrol Oil and Gas of Brazil Ltda.
6. ExxonMobil Exploration Brazil Ltda.
7. Murphy Exploration & Production Company
8. Petróleo Brasileiro SA - Petrobras
9. Petronas Petróleo Brasil Ltda.
10. QPI Brasil Petróleo Ltda.
11. Repsol Sinopec Brasil SA
12. Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda.
13. Wintershall DEA do Brasil Exploration & Production Ltda.

These companies have met all the requirements set out in the notice and are able to participate in the round. The qualification is mandatory and individual for each interested, even for those wishing to submit offer through consortium.

The 6th Production Sharing Round is scheduled for 7/11 and will offer the Aram, Boomerang, Southern Cross, Southwest Sagittarius and North Brava blocks, distributed in the Santos and Campos basins.

The ANP will hold two pre-salt area auctions in November: the Onerous Assignment Surplus Bidding Round on the 6th and the 6th Production Sharing Bidding Round on the 7th.

The Assignment is a regime of direct hiring of specific areas of the Union, for Petrobras. Law No. 12,276 / 2010 granted the company the right to extract up to five billion barrels of oil equivalent in these non-contracted areas, located in the pre-salt, as detailed in the agreement signed between the Union and Petrobras.

Considering the existence of volumes above the maximum limit provided for in the contract, in 2019, the National Council for Energy Policy (CNPE) authorized the ANP to bid for this surplus, under the production sharing regime, in the Assignment Surplus Bidding Round. The round, scheduled for November 6, will offer Atapu, Buzios, ltapu and Sepia development areas in the Santos Basin.

The difference of this round for the other auctions in the production sharing regime is that areas already under development will be offered, without exploratory risk.

In traditional sharing rounds, blocks are offered, ie areas not yet explored, where the winning companies will need to do studies to identify whether or not there is oil and / or gas in commercial quantities (the so-called exploration phase). This is the case of the 6th Production Sharing Bidding Round, in which the Aram, Boomerang, Southern Cross, Southwest Sagittarius blocks in the Santos Basin and the North Brava blocks in the Campos Basin will be offered.

In the case of the Assignment Surplus Surplus, the existence of hydrocarbons is already confirmed. The companies will compete for surplus volumes, that is, beyond the five billion barrels to which Petrobras is entitled.

KeyFacts Energy: Licensing Round announcements