Brazil’s oil regulator is about to grant exploration rights in a promising offshore area the place state-controlled oil producer Petrobras has confronted a years-long dispute with environmental authorities to begin drilling.
An public sale happening June 17 will embody areas in 5 sedimentary basins, together with the Potiguar and the Foz do Amazonas, in deepwater close to the equator, regulator ANP confirmed Monday. Each areas are within the wider area often known as the Equatorial Margin, the place the oil business sees one of the best possibilities for Brazil to replenish oil reserves that in any other case will begin declining within the 2030s.
Brazil will provide 172 oil blocks that span areas on land to deep-water areas in northeastern and southern Brazil below concession contracts. A complete of 47 are on the Foz do Amazonas, the place Petrobras is interesting to drill its first effectively after having its exploration marketing campaign blocked in 2023. Brazil’s Mines and Power Ministry says that basin might comprise oil fields just like these found in Suriname and Guyana, the place Exxon Mobil Corp. discovered billions of barrels.
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“The dearth of authorization for Petrobras to drill within the Foz do Amazonas basin brings uncertainty and definitely impacts the attractiveness of the public sale,” mentioned Rivaldo Moreira Neto, a director at A&M Infra consultancy.
The areas provided within the Potiguar basin are vulnerable to being disregarded of future rounds if they aren’t granted in June. That’s as a result of a joint assertion from Brazil’s atmosphere ministry and mines and power ministry that enables the social and environmentally delicate areas to be provided is about to run out the day after the oil public sale.
In a 2025 opinion, a working group fashioned by environmental technicians instructed excluding the Potiguar basin oil blocks given they’re in “locations of utmost environmental sensitivity and ecosystem connectivity,” such because the Atol das Rocas and the Fernando de Noronha archipelago.
Brazil’s oil regulator additionally shall be providing exploration acreage within the Pelotas basin, in southern Brazil, seen as geologically just like Namibia the place European oil majors had made enormous discoveries.
In 2023 a Petrobras and Shell consortium gained dozens of blocks there which are nonetheless to be explored. There may also be areas provided within the Parecis basin, the one on land, and Santos basin, recognized for the large pre-salt offshore discoveries made in 2000s.
In line with the ANP, 31 corporations are registered and in a position to bid, together with Petrobras, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, Equinor and BP.
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