NOV 13, 2019
The year 2019 is approaching its end and Brazil has not yet filed any declaration of commerciality of oil and gas areas. In addition, the country is experiencing a decline in the number of these statements over the last few years. Consulted by the Petronotícia, the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) says that this scenario has its origins in the past, due to the discontinuity of exploratory block bidding rounds. As is well known, Brazil only had a sequence of auctions from 2017, starting with the 14th Round of Concessions.
The last declaration of commerciality in the country took place in December last year, in the Southwest area of Tartaruga Verde, in the Campos Basin. In 2018 there were 10 declarations. The number is already much lower compared to 2010, for example, when 30 declarations of commerciality were made. One of them is very special – the Lula field, today the most productive area in the whole country.
After 2010, Brazil failed to repeat such a large number of declarations, but it was from 2016 onwards that it saw a more significant drop in this index, when it registered only four. The following year, there were six. And in 2018 there was a slight increase, totaling 10 statements.
With less than two months to go before 2019, it is not yet possible to say that the country will not file any declaration of commerciality for the year. When consulted by the Petronotícia, the ANP replied: “The fact that there is no declaration of commerciality at this time does not preclude a Declaration of Commerciality at any time, since the ANP currently has 36 Discovery assets, 33 in blocks in the exploration phase and three in fields already in production ”.
During the Exploration phase, the operator may, at its discretion, make the Declaration of Commerciality of an area already evaluated according to a Discovery Evaluation Plan (PAD) approved by the ANP. The agency added that “it must also be considered that the discontinuity of exploratory block bidding rounds, resumed in 2017, contributed to a drop in the number of declarations of commerciality.”
Judging by the large number of blocks auctioned and offered in the last three years, the expectation is for an increase in declarations of commerciality. Since 2017, the year in which bids for oil and gas fields in Brazil were resumed, 71 blocks were auctioned under the concession regime. In the sharing regime, which offers pre-salt areas, 14 areas were auctioned off.
Also in the pre and post stages of the declaration of commerciality process, more activities are expected. In the exploration part, for example, an estimated 273 new wells to be drilled in 2020, with investments of around R $ 23.6 billion according to the ANP. In the following years, a total of 242 drills are expected in 2021; and 280 in 2022.
Source: Petronoticia
Leave a Reply