Brazil’s ANP awards 56 exploration areas in dual Oct. 7 rounds
Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) closed two Permanent Offer sessions on October 7, awarding seven pre-salt blocks under production sharing and 49 exploration blocks plus three marginal-accumulation areas under concession. Combined signature bonuses were about R$3.54 billion.
Details are as follows.
Production sharing (4th Cycle, morning)
Seven of 13 pre-salt blocks were awarded, the largest number in a single production-sharing cycle since the Permanent Offer began (five were awarded in 2025). Signature bonuses, fixed in the tender, totaled R$530,466,522.04. Minimum exploration-phase investment is R$778,426,200.
All winning bids offered the federal government a profit-oil share above the minimum; the average premium was 108.38 percent, led by Rodocrosita at 494.64 percent. No block drew competing bids.
Six companies bid and all won interests. Unsold blocks were Aragonita, Cerussita, Granada, Larimar, Opala, and Turmalina. Awarded area under the sharing regime increased from about 24,800 km² to 39,200 km².
Concession (6th Cycle, afternoon)
Of roughly 303–308 exploration blocks offered across nine basins, 49 were awarded, covering about 35,300 km², plus three of five marginal-accumulation areas. Signature bonuses were R$3,005,659,796.14 on the exploration blocks — the highest since the concession Permanent Offer began — and R$1,594,000 on the marginal areas. Average premium on block bonuses was 3,511.27 percent. Minimum exploration-phase investment is about R$1.582 billion on the blocks and R$4.5 million on the marginal areas. Ten companies bid; nine won.
Petrobras took 12 Campos Basin blocks alone and, with QatarEnergy (30 percent), seven Ceará Basin blocks on the Equatorial Margin, operating at 70 percent. A TotalEnergies–QatarEnergy consortium also won Campos acreage. Santos and Espírito Santo drew no bids.
Onshore awards went to Águila Energia (Tacutu, Potiguar, Recôncavo), Eneva and Petrom (Parnaíba), Alvopetro, Origem, and Tucano Serviços (Tucano Sul), and Petrorecôncavo (Potiguar and Recôncavo).
Petrobras said its signature-bonus share across both cycles, covering 21 blocks, is R$3,219,251,245.60, payable by December 30, 2026.
Contracts from the production-sharing round are expected to be signed by February 26, 2027. Both regimes still provide for royalties, and special participation on large fields, once production begins.
About the Author
Bruce BeaubouefBruce Beaubouef
Senior Lead Reporter / Managing Editor
Bruce Beaubouef is Managing Editor for Offshore magazine. In that capacity, he plans and oversees content for the magazine; writes features on technologies and trends for the magazine; writes news updates for the website; creates and moderates topical webinars; and creates videos that focus on offshore oil and gas and renewable energies. Beaubouef has been in the oil and gas trade media for 25 years, starting out as Editor of Hart’s Pipeline Digest in 1998. From there, he went on to serve as Associate Editor for Pipe Line and Gas Industry for Gulf Publishing for four years before rejoining Hart Publications as Editor of PipeLine and Gas Technology in 2003. He joined Offshore magazine as Managing Editor in 2010, at that time owned by PennWell Corp. Beaubouef earned his Ph.D. at the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation was published in book form by Texas A&M University Press in September 2007 as The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005.