Government Aims to Sell Oil and Gas Areas Beyond 200 Nautical Miles

The 17th ANP Round Will Offer 128 Exploratory Oil and Gas Blocks in the Campos, Santos, Pelotas, Potiguar, and Pará-Maranhão Basins

The Working Group with a focus on oil and gas exploration, established by the Brazilian National Energy Policy Council (CNPE), opined on the viability of offering areas for oil and gas exploration, beyond the 200 nautical miles in the 17th bidding round of the National Agency of Petroleum (ANP), scheduled for the second semester.

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Information comes from the Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, during the contract signing ceremony for areas auctioned in the 16th round and the ANP’s permanent offering.

“The report from the Working Group formed by CNPE resolution determined the viability of auctioning exploratory blocks beyond the 200 nautical miles limit,” said Bento Albuquerque.

The Working Group was established by the government on January 10 and included participants from the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), ANP, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Civil House.

The focus of the area offering at this time is the zone near the pre-salt beyond the 200 nautical miles, where, in the case of confirmed discoveries, there are prospects of increasing Brazil’s oil and gas reserves by about 50%, which are currently estimated at 15.9 billion barrels.

The 17th ANP Bidding Round will provide 128 blocks in the Campos, Santos, Pelotas, Potiguar, and Pará-Maranhão basins, totaling an area of 64,100 km² – which does not include assets outside the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

More than half of the selected areas are located in the Pelotas Basin, where 74 blocks will be offered, compared to 17 in Santos, 15 in Campos, 14 in the Potiguar Basin, and eight in Pará-Maranhão. Currently, Pelotas has only four areas under concession in the region – all operated by Petrobras and with the exploratory period suspended by the ANP.

The inclusion of blocks outside the EEZ – the so-called “pre-salt mirror,” beyond the 200 nautical miles (370 km) – was authorized by the CNPE back in November, but the government created a Working Group to study and format the details of the process and select the areas that will be offered.

The EEZ Working Group is composed of representatives from the MME, ANP, Brazilian Navy, and the ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, and the Civil House.

The MME plans to hold the two auctions for exploratory blocks at the end of 2020, possibly between November and December, but industry sources fear that the deadlines may become tight with the delays.