brazil anp cuts number of oil blocks

Brazil ANP Cuts Number of Oil E&P Blocks in 10th Auction
by Jeff Fick Dow Jones Newswires Friday, October 03, 2008



RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones Newswires), October 3, 2008

Brazil's National Petroleum Agency reduced the number of exploration and production concession blocks scheduled to be auctioned at the so-called 10th round scheduled for December.

The ANP, as the agency is known, published a notice in Thursday's Federal Register that 130 blocks in eight sectors and seven sedimentary basins would be auctioned Dec. 18. That was down from previous notification of 162 blocks in 11 sectors and nine sedimentary basins.

A spokesman for the agency declined to comment on the change when contacted by Dow Jones Newswires.

Details on the much-anticipated 10th round concession auction were released in September. The concession auction will cover only land blacks, with deepwater sea blocks held back until likely changes to Brazil's oil legislation are in effect, Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said at the time.

There is also a suspended eighth round of concession blocks. The fate of the eighth round will probably be decided later this year. That auction includes blocks in the promising subsalt layer off Brazil's coast.
The subsalt region is at the heart of possible changes to Brazil's oil legislation, given that the area could hold massive oil reserves.