ANP Publishes New Permanent Concession Offer Notice with 45 New Blocks

May 13 – ANP released a new version of the Permanent Concession Offer (PCO) notice. The document was revised to include 45 new exploratory blocks which, added to the areas already foreseen in the previous version, raise the total number of exploratory blocks to 495 and the number of areas with marginal accumulations available for offer in the next PCO cycles to five. The technical-economic parameters of the blocks were also updated.

The 495 areas and the five areas with marginal accumulations are distributed across 11 sedimentary basins: Campos, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Parecis, Parnaíba, Potiguar, Recôncavo, Santos, São Francisco, Tacutu and Tucano. The 45 added blocks are located in the following basins:

Campos (offshore): 26 blocks
Santos (offshore): 11 blocks
Potiguar (onshore): eight blocks

According to the ANP (National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels), all blocks and areas available in the Open Bidding Process tender have a favorable environmental viability opinion issued by the responsible bodies, in addition to a Joint Statement from the Ministries of Mines and Energy (MME) and the Environment and Climate Change (MMA).

The rules foreseen in the previous version of the tender and in the draft concession contracts have been maintained without alterations. With the publication of the new version, the 45 blocks are now eligible to receive declarations of interest from registered companies, accompanied by their respective bid guarantees, allowing the opening of the 6th Cycle of the PCO.