Petrobras, Chevron and Shell set sights on new Brazil exploration frontier

On 13 December, the Brazilian government conducted two auctions: 15 different companies won 192 blocks under concession regime with US$85 million raised in signature bonuses while only one block was awarded under production sharing contracts (PSC). This time around companies bet in the concession areas with higher technical risks. The Pelotas Basin was the star of the auction with 44 blocks awarded. This basin is located near Uruguay and may have geological similarities to Orange Basin in Namibia. Chevron and Petrobras led-consortiums acquired 15 and 29 blocks, respectively. In a round where blocks in all onshore basins received bids, two companies, Elysian and Blushift, debuted successfully competing against established companies like Eneva and 3R. Elysian acquired 122 blocks. In contrast to the concession bid round, BP was the sole bidder for one production sharing area. Petrobras did not manifest interest for the production sharing areas.