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The oil auction pre-salt surprised to see Chinese giants surpass Petrobras and win more than half of the barrels sold. With record revenue of R$17 billion, the event highlighted the potential of the Brazilian pre-salt and raised questions about the future of the energy sector in the country.
In a surprising move, the Brazilian oil market witnessed an unexpected turnaround. The recent auction of pre-salt oil production, one of Brazil's most valuable resources, brought surprises that promise to change the energy scenario in the country.
The event, organized by the state-owned Pré-Sal Petróleo SA (PPSA) and held at B3, the São Paulo Stock Exchange, this Wednesday (31), raised a record amount, exceeding all expectations.
But what caught the most attention was the dominant participation of foreign companies, especially the Chinese giants, which surpassed the traditional Petrobras on several fronts.
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Second official information, the auction raised an impressive R$17 billion, exceeding the initial estimate of R$15 billion. Chinese companies Cnooc and PetroChina secured most of the barrels of oil offered, totaling 23 million of the 37,5 million barrels sold.
This volume will be extracted from the Mero and Búzios fields, located in the pre-salt of the Santos Basin, with production scheduled for 2025.
Fierce competition and market strategy
PPSA, responsible for managing and supervising the oil production under the sharing regime, it organized the auction to sell the portion of production that belongs to the federal government.
The rules of the contest established that proposals with the lowest discount in relation to the reference price would win, which was the value of Brent plus a maximum discount of US$4,40 for Mero lots and US$4,25 for the Búzios lot.
The Chinese guaranteed their victory with smaller discounts than expected, thus increasing the final revenue.
The event was attended by prominent figures, such as the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, and the president of the Petrobras Board of Directors, Pietro Mendes.
The funds collected will be allocated to the Social Fund and should only enter the public coffers between April 2025 and April 2026, as Silveira explained during the ceremony.
Future results and projections
According to O Globo newspaper, Chinese leadership in the auction was clear in the Mero lots, where the companies Cnooc and PetroChina secured two of the three lots offered.
In the first batch, Petrobras received a discount of US$1,85 compared to Brent, while Cnooc and PetroChina presented higher discounts.
In the second batch, after a fierce hands-free dispute, Cnooc won with a discount of US$1,59. In the third batch, PetroChina surpassed Petrobras with a discount of US$1,35.
In the Búzios field, Petrobras managed to win the lot of 2,5 million barrels with a discount of US$1,85, surpassing competition from Cnooc and Prio.
The reduction in discounts in relation to the maximum values established by the notice resulted in a record collection, highlighted by the interim president of PPSA, Tabita Loureiro, as the largest ever recorded by the state-owned company.
Expectations for the future and environmental discussions
During the event, Alexandre Silveira also defended the exploration of new areas, such as the equatorial margin, which depends on authorization from Ibama for the drilling of wells on the coast of Amapá.
Silveira argued that exploration could generate up to R$5 trillion in revenue by 2050, a value that, according to him, cannot be ignored.
In total, ten companies participated in the auction, including giants such as ExxonMobil, Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies.
This year's revenue, which already totals R$3,85 billion as of July, shows the strength and potential of the Brazilian pre-salt, a strategic asset that will continue to be explored in the coming years.
How do you evaluate the entry of foreign companies into the Brazilian oil market? Will this trend continue to grow in the coming years? Leave your opinion in the comments!
All for money!
Brazil, a country for everyone! 🤦🏽♂️
This must be a lie. The Lula government would never let a foreign company come and take our oil. If it had been the previous government, that would have been fine. But not Lula.
Even more so with China, which he has no relations of interest to, right?
Are you serious friend?!
This is the government of love, everything the country has to offer is shared with the world for a price that fits in your underwear.
This is a bidding process, my friend. The previous government sold several parts of Petrobras in exchange for the jewels. Now SABESP was privatized unnecessarily. The best sanitation and market company in the sector was privatized with Tarcísio choosing the company that would buy it. A company that has no know-how in the sanitation sector.
One thing has nothing to do with the other. I expect this from Bolsonarism, but not from Lula.
Petrobras is oil, not water and sewage. The president is Luís Inacio. The same one who in 14 years burned through the oil money and left the country in debt and an importer. All hydrocarbon projects exceeded their economic value by at least three times. The Brazilian people are immoral and underdeveloped.
Wake up, man, Lula has already taken your house and you didn't realize it... all for money, soon the son who was a manual laborer at the zoo, today is the owner of the blue bus company, a fattening **** farm, the largest shareholder of JBS, and the federal revenue wants to take money from the employee with income tax of 2 minimum wages...
This was agreed to sell the country to China some time ago, even defense companies are being sold to China, the ammunition factory and the war equipment factory with missiles and other grounded... then there will be Brazilians left, lol
Free market, don't you liberals advocate the end of state control?
Interesting free scam. The Chinese know how to open their wallets. Chinese business.
What else is the **** party giving them? The people? Greedy dogs. God does not sleep.
If it were under the Bolsonaro government it would be a scandal, but since it is under the management of this **** party, it's fine, free competition.