ANP, Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, announced the winners of its 11th Licensing Round - the first round since 2008, which was held on 14 May 2013 in Rio de Janiero.
The agency said there was record interest in the round with 39 companies from 12 countries participating. There were 289 blocks up for grabs, totaling an area of 150,000 sq km. In the end, 30 companies' high bids were accepted, tabulating approximately US$1.4 billion in revenue, ANP said.
France's Total, which secured interest in 10 exploration licenses, offered the highest bid for a single block - US$171.4 million (R$345.950 million) - for block FZA-M-57, in the Foz do Amazonas Basin. Total will operate with 40% interest. Its partners on the license include Petrobras (30%) and EOC BP (30%). In all, Total will operate five blocks in the Foz do Amazonas Basin.
BP, along with its partners Total, Petrobras, and Petrogal, were the high bidders on eight deepwater blocks in the Barreirinahs and Potiguar basins. BP will operate two of the blocks FZA-M-59 and BAR-M-346, with 70% and 50% interest, respectively.
"BP is delighted with this result. It will increase our frontier exploration exposure along Brazil’s equatorial margin and plays to our strengths in deep water," said Mike Daly, BP’s Executive Vice President of Exploration.
The wins follow BP’s return to the Brazilian upstream in 2011 with the purchase of interests in 10 blocks from Devon Energy and the subsequent farm-in to four Petrobras-operated deepwater blocks in the Brazilian equatorial margin in 2012.
Norway's Statoil had similar success during the round, coming out as the highest bidder on six licenses in the deepwater sector of the Espirito Santo basin. Statoil will operate four blocks: ES-M-598 (40%), ES-M-671 (35%), ES-M-673 (40%), and ES-M-743 (35%). The other two licenses (ES-M-596 and ES-M-669) will be operated by Petrobras with 50% and 40% interest, respectively. Other consortium partners on the licenses include partners Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção (ES-M-598, ES-M-673) and Total E&P do Brasil (ES-M-669, ES-M-671, and ES-M-743).
Statoil's blocks have an exploration phase of seven years, divided into five-year and two-year periods. The total well commitment for the six licenses is 10 wells.
"These new licences in the Espirito Santo basin give us a significant acreage position in a proven hydrocarbon basin. They have the potential to provide large-scale additional resources close to our existing discoveries, which with success, will result in Statoil building a new core position," said Tim Dodson, executive vice president for Exploration in Statoil.
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