4th Pre-Salt Bid Round and 15th Concession Bid Round: CNPE Approves Blocks and Technical and Economic Parameters
On November 24, 2017, National Energy Policy Council ("CNPE") published Resolution No. 21/2017 and Resolution No. 22/2017 in the Federal Government’s Official Gazette ("Resolution No. 21" and "Resolution No. 22"), which establish the technical and economic parameters for the 4th Pre-Salt Bid Round under the Production Sharing Regime (“4th Pre-Salt Round”) and the blocks for the 15th Bid Round under the Concession Regime (“15th Concession Bid Round”), as well as authorize the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels ("ANP") to carry out the bid rounds.
The 4th Pre-Salt Round will offer 5 areas located in the Campos and Santos Basins: Itaimbezinho, Três Marias, Dois Irmãos, Saturno and Uirapuru.
CNPE defined the minimum percentage of the federal government’s profit oil, as follows: (i) 7.07 percent for the Itaimbezinho area, (ii) 8.32 percent for the Três Marias area, (iii) 16.43 percent for the Dois Irmãos area, (iv) 14.12 percent for the Saturno area and (v) 22.18 percent for the Uirapuru area.
Pursuant to Resolution No. 21, the signing bonus due to the Federal Government’s will be:
- BRL 50 million for the Itaimbezinho area;
- BRL 100 million for the Três Marias area;
- BRL 400 million for the Dois Irmãos area;
- BRL 1.45 billion for the Saturno area; and
- BRL 2.65 billion for the Uirapuru area.
Petrobras will have 30 days, counted from the Resolution No. 21’s publication, to exercise its preferential rights to be the Operator in each one of the offered areas.
With regard to the 15th Concession Bid Round, 70 blocks will be offered in the offshore Basins of Ceará, Potiguar, Sergipe-Alagoas, Campos and Santos and in the onshore basins of Parnaíba and Paraná.
For the onshore blocks of the 15th Concession Bid Round, the minimum local content global commitment percentage required will be 50 percent, both for the exploration phase and for the development period. As to the offshore blocks of both 4th Pre-Salt Round and 15th Concession Bid Round, the minimum local content percentages required will be: (i) exploration phase – minimum global commitment of 18 percent; and (ii) development period – 25 percent for the well construction, 40 percent for the collection and offloading system and 25 percent for the stationary production unit.
