Eng Saad Sherida Al Kaabi
DOHA: Qatar Petroleum (QP) has won exploration rights for an offshore block in Brazil, in partnership with ExxonMobil.
The winning bid was announced by Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP) at a public bidding session held yesterday in Rio de Janeiro. Competing bids were submitted to the ANP and the winners were announced throughout the course of the public session.
The exploration blocks were offered as part of the Brazil Exploration PSC5 Bid Round, which covered four blocks in the prolific Santos/Campos basins.
Qatar Petroleum won the exploration rights for the Tita block as part of a consortium with its long-term partner ExxonMobil, who will be the operator with a 64 percent participating interest, while Qatar Petroleum will hold the remaining 36 percent interest.
Eng Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, the President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “This is Qatar Petroleum’s third success in Brazil in less than a year, which expands of our footprint in one of the most prospective basins in the world. This winning bid constitutes another milestone on the road of achieving our strategy of creating a large scale, value-adding international portfolio, while pursuing Latin America as an important core area for Qatar Petroleum.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Brazilian authorities for promoting a transparent and efficient process, and our trusted partner ExxonMobil for their excellent collaboration on this opportunity."
“We look forward to working with our partner to create long-term, sustainable economic value for the project stakeholders,” Al-Kaabi concluded.
The relevant legal agreements, including the concession agreements, are expected to be signed between the Brazilian authorities and the consortium members by the end of this year.
This is the third winning bid by Qatar Petroleum in Brazil. In October 2017, and as part of Brazil’s PSC3round, Qatar Petroleum was part of a winning consortium with Shell and China National Offshore Oil Corporation for exploration in the Alto de Cabo Frio-Oeste block in the Santos basin.
In March 2018, Qatar Petroleum was part of two consortia winning four blocks in the 15th concession bidding round in Brazil; two blocks with Petrobras and ExxonMobil in the Campos Basin and two blocks with ExxonMobil in the Santos basin.
