Brazil sells 37.5Mb of pre-salt oil for US$3bn

Brazil’s Pré-Sal Petróleo (PPSA) sold 37.5Mb of oil from the Mero and Búzios fields in an auction held on Wednesday at the B3 stock exchange. 

The winners were federal oil company Petrobras and China's CNOOC and Petrochina. 

The sale of volumes to be produced in 2025 resulted in 17bn reais (US$3bn) in revenues for PPSA, 2bn reais more than originally planned.

PPSA represents the interests of the federal government in production sharing contracts, which involve oil areas considered strategic in the pre-salt polygon.

The auction was divided into four lots, three for Mero (two for 12Mb and one for 11Mb) and one for Búzios (for 2.5Mb).

After beating out CNOOC, Galp, Petrochina, Refinaria de Mataripe (Acelen) and TotalEnergies, Petrobras won the first lot of the Mero field for the production of 12Mb of oil from the Guanabara FPSO, for the value of Dated Brent minus US$1.85/b.

Dated Brent is an international futures reference published daily by Platts.

The second Mero lot, also of 12Mb of oil but from the Sepetiba FPSO, was acquired by China's CNOOC, for the value of Dated Brent minus US$1.59/b and disputed with Petrobras. Galp, Petrochina and Refinaria de Mataripe also placed bids for the lot.

Petrochina acquired the third and final batch of Mero, for Dated Brent minus US$1.35/b, for the production planned for the Marechal Duque de Caxias and Pioneiro de Libra FPSOs, of 11Mb. Petrobras and Galp also placed bids.

The Búzios lot was won by Petrobras for the value of Dated Brent minus US$1.85/b. PRIO, CNOOC, Petrochina and Galp also submitted bids.

NEW TENDER

Tabita Loureiro, interim president of PPSA, announced that in 2025, the state-run firm will return to the B3 to market the production estimated for the government in 2026. 

“And all this is just the beginning. The sharing contracts will generate a lot of oil for Brazilian society. By 2029, the government’s production under these contracts will exceed 500,000b/d. All this means wealth for Brazil, a direct contribution to the social fund,” she said.

The social fund receives financial resources from pre-salt oil production for public health and education. 

IN PRAISE OF OIL

Energy minister Alexandre Silveira welcomed the auction results and stressed the importance of guaranteeing more domestic oil production and capacity to reduce dependence on imports and ensure the resources needed to finance the energy transition.

“We can't give up these resources. They will be used to improve the quality of life of our population. The money from oil goes to the social fund, for health, education, and it should go towards reducing electricity bills. If we don't produce oil, another country will sell it to us. The supply chain for goods and services, the steel industry, the steel chain, are no longer producing here and are going to Guyana. And that's not what we want,” said Silveira.

The minister is one of the advocates of exploiting the oil resources of Brazil's environmentally sensitive Equatorial Margin.