Popular action in the federal court of São Paulo requests the suspension of the auction for contesting the co-participation agreement of the winners with Petrobras

The Mega-auction of surpluses from the transfer of rights, scheduled for next Wednesday (06/11), is threatened by a class action in the federal court of São Paulo. BP and Total withdrew from participating in the auction of the transfer of rights surplus, See here!
Filed by the law firm Garcez, the action is an injunction that requests the suspension of the auction because the agreement that will govern the co-participation between the new operators and Petrobras in relation to the surplus oil of the transfer of rights is not in legality, with the state-owned company remaining as operator of the original volumes.

The situation will apply to the Atapu and Sépia fields, as Petrobras will only make an offer for the Itapu and Búzios fields and will operate the surpluses, with at least 30% of the new contracts.

The auction is being called a mega auction and will offer reserves in four pre-salt fields in the Santos Basin (Atapu, Sépia, Itapu and Búzios) on Wednesday (6/11) and could raise more than R$ 106 billion in bonuses subscription fees paid by the winners.

The action also contests the discounts in the calculation of the collection on top of the calculation of federal taxes (IRPJ and CSLL) in the sharing regime and regulated by MP 795, of 2017, edited in the Temer government, according to her, would bring damage to the public coffers.

In the government's opinion, the injunction should not be granted since the auction regulation was widely debated in public consultation and was approved by the TCU.

This is not the only attempt to prevent the auction, Ildo Sauer and Guilherme Estrella, through the Institute of Energy and Environment of the University of São Paulo (IEE USP) prepared a technical note against the auction.
Both think that the entry of private or foreign companies in the pre-salt layer threatens Brazil's energy sovereignty and argue that the best contracting model would be through Petrobras, controlled by the PPSA and the ANP. (See the full Technical Note here).

Ildo Sauer was director of Gas and Energy at Petrobras between 2003 and 2007 and is a professor at IEE USP, while Guilherme Estrella was director of Exploration and Production between 2003 and 2011, precisely the time when the first discoveries in the pre-salt were confirmed .

Workers who provide services to Petrobras have a floating hotel in the sea surrounded by luxury in Macaé, the OOS Tiradentes!