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Petrobras under pressure to exclude

14 blocks from 17th Bidding Round

BRAZIL’S national oil company (NOC) Petro- 2019 that they were reviewing the legality of the
bras has been asked by a group of shareholders government’s decision to include blocks adja-
to eliminate more than a dozen offshore blocks cent to the Abrolhos archipelago in a previous
from the roster of sites included in the 17th Bid- licensing round. Because of the legal dispute, the
ding Round, a set of auctions scheduled to take blocks in question failed to draw any bids.
place on October 7. As of press time, the NOC had not responded
The group in question is Anapetro, an associ- to Anapetro’s letter. Petrobras has already
ation formed by Petrobras employees who own received expressions of interest (EoIs) in the
stock in the NOC. In a public letter, the associ- 17th Bidding Round from a number of interna-
ation urged Petrobras to reduce the number of tional oil companies (IOCs), including Chevron
offshore blocks in the 17th Bidding Round from (US), Ecopetrol (Colombia), Karoon Energy
92 to 78. (Australia), Murphy Oil (US), Royal Dutch Shell
It explained its request by noting that it had (UK/Netherlands) and TotalEnergies (France).
singled out 14 blocks that lie within environ- The upcoming bidding round covers 92
mentally sensitive areas. These areas include the blocks in four separate sedimentary basins –
Abrolhos archipelago, which is home to many Campos, Pelotas, Potiguar and Santos. ™
coral reefs, and the Fernando de Noronho archi-
pelago, they said. (The Fernando de Noronho
islands lie within the Potiguar basin, off Brazil’s
north-eastern Pernambuco State, while the
Abrolhos islands lie offshore Bahia State in the
Campos basin.)
The letter quoted Mario Dal Zot, the presi-
dent of Anapetro and the head of judicial affairs
at Brazil Oil and Gas Workers Unified Feder-
ation (FUP), the country’s largest union of oil
workers, as saying that Petrobras did not have a
strong enough justification for including these
14 blocks in the auctions. “Participating in this
auction is reckless, given its judicial and envi-
ronmental fragility and also the effective risk to
Petrobras’ image,” he said.
Dal Zot’s mention of judicial challenges to
the bidding round may have been a reference to
Brazilian federal prosecutors’ announcement in Anapetro wants Petrobras not to sell some blocks in the Potiguar basin (Image: ANP)

EIG makes binding offer for TBG, TSB pipes

EIG Global Energy Partners, a US-based private Petrobras. The offer from the US firm is worth
equity firm, has reportedly submitted a binding several hundred million dollars, the source said.
offer for two natural gas pipeline operators in EIG had submitted non-binding offers
Brazil. for both TBG and TSB in May of this year, as
A source with direct knowledge of the mat- part of a consortium that also included Cana-
ter told Reuters last week that EIG was seeking da’s Enbridge and the Belgian independent gas
to acquire Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto infrastructure group Fluxys. But the binding
Bolivia-Brasil (TBG), the operator of the Gas- offer submitted last week came from EIG alone,
bol pipeline used to import gas from Bolivia, rather than the consortium, Reuters’ source
and Transportadora Sulbrasileira de Gás (TSB), noted. He also said, though, that the private
the operator of a gas transport network serving equity company was still in discussions with the
southern Brazil. Both pipelines are currently consortium partners over potential investment
owned by the national oil company (NOC) and involvement in the assets.

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