Largest pre-salt auction ends with seven of the 13 blocks sold

The largest auction of oil and gas exploration and production blocks in the so-called Pre-Salt Polygon ended with seven of the 13 blocks offered being sold. The 4th Cycle of the Permanent Production Sharing Offer was held this Wednesday morning (7).

The dispute organized by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), at the institution's headquarters, in the center of Rio de Janeiro, allowed the government to collect R$530 million in signing bonuses. If all blocks had been contracted, the value would total R$1.24 billion.

This was the pre-salt auction with the most blocks sold. The previous one (3rd Cycle, in 2025), had five areas tendered. As a result, the exploratory area under the sharing regime increases by 58%, reaching 39.2 thousand km², equivalent to around 90% of the territory of the state of Rio de Janeiro (43.8 thousand km²).

There were 19 qualified companies, but only six presented proposals, four of which were foreign. There was no competition, that is, in all seven blocks auctioned, only one competitor offered a bid.

The biggest winners were the Brazilian companies Petrobras and Prio (formerly PetroRio), each with two blocks. The Norwegian Equinor also took two areas, one of them in a consortium with the Portuguese Galp.

To explore the blocks, all located in the Santos and Campos basins, on the Southeast coast, the oil companies committed to making minimum investments of around R$778.4 million.

Sharing model

Just like the signing bonuses, the minimum investments are provided for in the notice from the ANP, the regulatory agency for the oil and gas sector in the country, linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME).

In addition to approval from the MME, the exploratory areas put up for auction also received the green light from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA).

In the sharing model auction, the company that offers the Union the largest portion of surplus oil – the production that remains after paying the costs – wins. The agreement works as a way of sharing profits with the Brazilian State.

The notice provides for a minimum value for each block. The dispute is confidential in the presentation of offers, that is, the companies do not know in advance what percentage of surplus oil their competitors are offering and in which areas they will make an offer.

Thus, even though there was no dispute in the blocks, they were all sold at a premium, which varied from 8% to almost 495%. The average premium was 108.38%.

Five areas were on offer in the Campos Basin (Magnetite, Tourmaline, Hematite, Larimar and Azurite) and eight in the Santos Basin (Jade, Aragonite, Cruzeiro do Sul, Opal, Granada, Cerussite, Ruby and Rhodochrosite).

Check out the list of winners in each area won:

Magnetite: Winner: Prio. Percentage of excess oil: 32.80%. Goodwill: 132.79%.

Hematite: Prio. Surplus oil: 7.18%. Goodwill: 315.03%.

Azurite: Winner: Petrobras. Surplus oil: 30%. Goodwill: 139.81%.

Jade: Winners: Chinese companies CNOOC (70% of the consortium) and Sinopec (30%). Surplus oil: 18.20%. Goodwill: 65.76%.

Cruzeiro do Sul: Winner: Petrobras. Surplus oil: 15.27%. Goodwill: 8.07%.

Rubi: Winner: Norwegian Equinor. Surplus oil: 25.02%. Goodwill: 91.72%.

Rhodochrosite: Winners: Norwegian Equinor (70% of the consortium) and Portuguese Galp (30%). Surplus oil: 15.52%. Goodwill: 494.64%.

The winning companies need, from now on, to follow the other steps foreseen in the schedule, such as presenting documents and paying the signing bonus, so that the contracts can then be signed, which is scheduled for February 26, 2027.

The Turmaline, Larimar, Aragonite, Opal, Granada and Cerussite blocks were not auctioned. They remain on the "shelf" for the next bidding round.

Pre-salt

The pre-salt is under a thick layer of salt, which can reach 7,000 meters deep. Currently, it is the main production area in the country. In September, for example, it accounted for 82.6% of Brazilian oil and gas.

As stated before the start of the auction by the general director of the ANP, Artur Watt Neto, the pre-salt continues to be "one of the most relevant exploratory frontiers in the world".

"We have to continue working to offer blocks neighboring the identified opportunities", he said, referring to the pre-salt as "great wealth that the country has".

Auction outside the pre-salt

Starting at 2pm this Wednesday, the ANP will carry out the 6th Cycle of the Permanent Concession Offer, which puts 313 exploration blocks in dispute in 22 sectors, which include terrestrial (onshore) and maritime (offshore) exploration, such as post-salt on the Southeast coast.

The difference is that in the concession model, which excludes pre-salt areas, the winner is the company that offers the highest signing bonus. There is no proposal to share barrels of oil directly with the Union.

In the afternoon auction, two sectors belong to the Ceará Basin, located on the Brazilian Equatorial Margin. The area is seen by the oil industry as a promising frontier.

In total, 46 companies are qualified to participate.

In both sharing and concession, during the production phase, oil companies pay royalties and special participation (in the case of large production fields) to the government, a form of environmental compensation.

Reactions

The Institute for Strategic Studies of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Zé Eduardo Dutra (Ineep), a study center linked to the Single Federation of Oil Workers (FUP), and the Brazilian Institute of Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels (IBP), a private entity that brings together companies in the sector, see auctions as a way to boost the oil industry, generating jobs and income, as well as advancing the country's energy security.

On the other hand, environmental activists view the auctions with concern. The Arayara Institute, a non-governmental organization dedicated to socio-environmental issues, even filed a Public Civil Action in Federal Court asking for the auction not to take place.

The organization claims that the areas in dispute overlap with indigenous and quilombola territories, agrarian reform settlements, conservation areas and artisanal fishing regions.

Since before the start of the sharing auction, protesters have been protesting in front of the ANP headquarters.

New areas

At the beginning of the sharing auction, the MME's national secretary of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, Renato Dutra, stated that oil is a factor that gives Brazil an advantage on the international stage.

He added that the MME works together with the MMA to increase the supply of exploratory blocks to "preserve national energy security".

According to him, in the coming months, the government should make more than 50 exploration blocks available in the Pelotas Basin, on the southern coast of the country. The area is also seen as promising because it has geological characteristics similar to the African coast, where oil is produced.

"It's a next step", he anticipated.

He reaffirmed the government's interest in exploration known as "unconventional", hydraulic fracturing (fracking, in English).

This technique uses high-pressure injection of a mixture of water, sand and chemical additives to cause fractures in rock formations and allow the extraction of fossil fuels.