Petrobras Nets 34 Exploration Blocks Offered in 11th Licensing Round (Brazil)

Brazil’s state run oil and gas company Petrobras has acquired the most blocks offered in the 11th Bid Round held by the National Petroleum Agency (ANP).

Petrobras bought, whether on its own or in partnerships, 34 of the 289 blocks offered in the bid. It also secured, in its technicians’ opinions, the blocks with the highest exploratory potential offered by the agency, located in the Foz do Amazonas, Espírito Santo and Barreirinhas Basins. In its strategy to acquire onshore blocks, Petrobras invested primarily in the Parnaíba Basin, seeking natural gas accumulations.

The total invested by Petrobras and its partners in the 11th round was R$ 1,460.9 million, of which R$ 537.9 million came from its own resources and R$ 923 million from partners. The result of the bid will also allow the company to expand its knowledge of the geology of the sedimentary basins in the blocks it bought, by drilling wells and acquiring a large amount of seismic data, which will increase the likelihood of discovering new oil and natural gas accumulations. To do so, the company formed important partnerships in all the offshore blocks it bought.

The company’s strategy in the bid was successful and consistent with the objectives outlined in its 2013-2017 Business & Management Plan of incorporating new exploratory areas for the continuous recomposition of its portfolio in order to ensure oil and natural gas volumes that are necessary for the sustainability of its future production curve.