BP, Partners Winning Bidders for 8 Deepwater Blocks in Brazil

BP and partners Total, Petrobras and Petrogal were yesterday named winning bidders for eight deepwater blocks offshore Brazil in the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency’s (ANP’s) 11th bid round. BP will be operator in two of the blocks.

The companies have committed to explore concession blocks FZA-M-57, FZA-M-59, FZA-M-86, FZA-M-88, FZA-M-125, and FAZ-M-127 in the Foz do Amazonas basin, BAR-M-346 in the Barreirinhas basin, and POT-M-764 in the Potiguar basin, for oil and gas resources, with the right to develop any commercial discoveries under the Brazilian concession regime.

BP will be operator with a 70% stake in block FZA-M-59, and in block BAR-M-346, with a 50% stake.

“BP is delighted with this result. It will increase our frontier exploration exposure along Brazil’s equatorial margin and plays to our strengths in deepwater. We look forward to a successful exploration programme working with our partners Total, Petrobras and Petrogal,” said Mike Daly, BP’s Executive Vice President of Exploration.

Today’s winning bids follow BP’s re-entry into 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.

“This is an exciting outcome for BP. It reaffirms our long-term partnership with Brazil, expanding our upstream portfolio to 22 E&P concessions in seven different basins, in addition to our biofuels, lubricants, aviation and marine fuel businesses,” added Guillermo Quintero, BP Brazil Regional President.

BP and its partners now expect to work with the ANP to finalise the awards. The signing of the contracts, in which BP will participate through its Brazilian subsidiary BP Energy do Brasil Ltda., is expected to take place in August 2013.