AFP, Rio De Janeiro :
Brazil’s government cheered a nearly $2 billion payday from the auction Friday of its deep-water oil fields in a sale that brought the world’s energy giants into previously-restricted territory.
The auction-delayed by a late court injunction backed by the leftist former governing party-saw six of eight so-called pre-salt blocks in Brazil’s offshore Atlantic region find buyers.
The government racked up 6.15 billion reais ($1.9 billion) in signing bonuses and the promise of far more.
“Brazil is back on the world oil scene,” said Decio Oddone, head of the National Petroleum Agency, which oversaw the auction.
Winners were determined according to the percentage of profit oil pledged to the government in production sharing agreements.
Signing bonuses fell beneath the potential 7.15 billion reais if all blocks had been sold. However, the government still came out in front, because consortiums including Shell, Exxon and Statoil pledged bigger-than-expected production percentages.
In one block, won by a consortium of Brazil’s Petrobras, Repsol and Shell, the agreed government share of profit oil was 80 percent-far greater than the minimum 20 percent requirement.
Brazil’s government cheered a nearly $2 billion payday from the auction Friday of its deep-water oil fields in a sale that brought the world’s energy giants into previously-restricted territory.
The auction-delayed by a late court injunction backed by the leftist former governing party-saw six of eight so-called pre-salt blocks in Brazil’s offshore Atlantic region find buyers.
The government racked up 6.15 billion reais ($1.9 billion) in signing bonuses and the promise of far more.
“Brazil is back on the world oil scene,” said Decio Oddone, head of the National Petroleum Agency, which oversaw the auction.
Winners were determined according to the percentage of profit oil pledged to the government in production sharing agreements.
Signing bonuses fell beneath the potential 7.15 billion reais if all blocks had been sold. However, the government still came out in front, because consortiums including Shell, Exxon and Statoil pledged bigger-than-expected production percentages.
In one block, won by a consortium of Brazil’s Petrobras, Repsol and Shell, the agreed government share of profit oil was 80 percent-far greater than the minimum 20 percent requirement.
