Brazil in for busy summer with new oil & gas round

Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP) has disclosed the date for the country’s next oil and gas licensing round. The Agency has also presented draft legislation to encourage more exploratory activities and a tool for tracking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil and gas production activities in the country.

Based on the schedule for the 5th cycle of the open acreage of concession published in Brazil’s Official Gazette, a public session for the presentation of offers as part of the country’s latest bidding round will take place on June 17, 2025. 

As stated by ANP, 332 exploratory blocks across several onshore and offshore basins are available in this round. The blocks form part of the Campos, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Foz do Amazonas, Paraná, Parecis, Pelotas, Pernambuco-Paraíba, Potiguar, Santos, and Tucano basins.

Petrobras recently disclosed an increase in its proven reserves of oil, condensate, and natural gas in 2024 compared to the previous year. According to the firm, the uptick is mainly due to developments in the Santos basin, such as the Atapu, Sépia and Mero fields. The latter achieved first oil in October 2024 from the floating storage production and offloading (FPSO) unit Marechal Duque de Caxias.

There are currently 89 companies registered in the permanent offer under the concession regime. They will have until March 31, 2025, to submit a declaration of interest, accompanied by a bid guarantee. The areas that will form part of the public session of this round will be announced in April 2025. 

As disclosed by ANP in January, the validity of production sharing contracts (PSCs) for 156 blocks in the notice expires in June 2025. Since PSCs for 11 of these were renewed, 145 blocks are now available for declaration of interest in this round since the date for the public session precedes their PSCs’ expiration date.

If a declaration of interest for this round is not received and PSCs are not renewed, they will be removed from the notice. The same will happen for the areas that make up the fifth round, but for which no offers are received.

This follows the fourth cycle which was held in December 2023. In October 2024, Petrobras, Shell, and CNOOC signed three concession contracts for three blocks in the Pelotas Basin as part of that round.

ANP also held a public hearing on a draft resolution that establishes the requirements and procedures for compliance with the minimum exploration program (MEP) outside the limits of an original area under contract. 

Since the Agency identified a decline in the execution of these activities over the last few years, ANP Acting Director, Mariana Cavadinha, highlighted the importance of exploratory activities at the opening of the public hearing.

Based on a study undertaken by the ANP, the rules that address the possibility of complying with the MEP outside the concession area need to be more flexible and clear. The results of this study prompted the creation of a draft resolution setting out the requirements for using this mechanism. 

The MEP lists the minimum activities companies commit to carry out in the first phase of oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) contracts (exploration phase), in which activities are performed to identify the presence or absence of hydrocarbons. These commitments are expressed in work units (WUs), with each type of activity, such as seismic surveys and well drilling, corresponding to a certain number of WUs. 

In a bid to up its decarbonization effort, the ANP also launched a Dynamic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Dashboard, an interactive tool where data on GHG emissions from oil and gas production activities in Brazil are published. Data such as emissions by basin, field and production units, rankings by field and operating company, and emissions history, among others, can be viewed in the tool.

The tool was launched at the first edition of ANP’s methane workshop held on February 7, 2025, in Rio de Janeiro. According to the Agency, the event demonstrates its commitment to the climate agenda and the discussion of actions for the energy transition related to its regulatory area. 

In her opening speech, ANP Director Symone Araújo stated that the event marked the beginning of a series of meetings aimed at strengthening the Agency’s strategic role in tackling climate change. According to Araújo, mitigating methane emissions is one of the most important strategies for reducing climate impacts in the short term.

The year is off to a busy start for the Brazilian regulator. Last month, it approved the unification of two oil and gas fields in the country’s pre-salt Santos Basin operated by Petrobras. The fields, Berbigão and Sururu, form part of concession BM-S-11A offshore Brazil.