MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil calls a new oil licencing round

The Brazilian National Oil Agency, ANP, announced an exploration and production licencing round in line with the country's objective of achieving energy self sufficiency by 2006.

According to ANP, 33 companies have been qualified to participate in the licencing round which will conclude next August with the auctioning of the new areas totalling 213,898 square kilometres, most of them off-shore in the Atlantic ocean. In the five previous licencing rounds local and foreign companies participated, including major oil corporations. The sixth round apparently is geared to attract small and medium sized companies that will have to bid for 997 tranches in ten different sedimentary basins. The areas to be licenced fall in three different categories according to ANP, "mature basins", that have advanced exploration and production experience and which should attract "smaller companies". The second category is basins in the "technological frontier" which are targeted to attract investors to non producing areas and relatively explored. Finally, the third category involves "areas with a great discovery potential" which should attract major domestic and international oil companies. This group includes remnant areas of 1998 originally granted to Petrobras when the "zero round", which was exclusively for the government oil company. Petrobras is one of the world's leading corporations in offshore oil exploration and exploitation since almost 90% of the Brazil's reserves are along the coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil is targeting for 2006 a daily production of two million barrels of oil, sufficient to cover domestic demand and help balance the energy equation of the country. Current production is above 1,5 million barrels per day