Big Day for Brazilian E&P – 2nd Transfer of Rights Surplus Auction just wrapped up!
The 2nd Transfer of Rights Surplus auction just finished. Overall, it was an exciting day for Brazilian E&P, with the Sepia and Atapu fields, in the pre-salt Santos Basin, receiving a total of three bids (Sepia: Petrobras vs. TotalEnergies/Petronas/QP – Atapu: Petrobras/Shell/TotalEnergies).With the signing bonuses fixed at R$7.138 billion for Sepia and R$4.002 billion for Atapu, it all came down to the surplus oil offered to the federal government (minimum of 15.02% for Sepia and 5.89% for Atapu).
In the end, the consortium made up of TotalEnergies, Petronas and QP won the Sepia field, offering 37.43% in profit oil (vs. 30.03% from Petrobras). However, the Brazilian NOC opted to exercise its preference rights on the field, confirming it as Sepia’s operator with a 30% stake, together with TotalEnergies (28%), Petronas (21%) and QP (21%).
As for Atapu, it was scooped up by Petrobras (52.5%), together with Shell (25%) and TotalEnergies (22.5%), which offered up 31.68% of profit oil to the feds.
To recap, there were 11 companies registered to bid in today’s auction: Petrobras, Shell, Chevron, Ecopetrol, Enauta Energia, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Petrogal, Petronas, TotalEnergies and QP (Qatar Petróleo). See all the bids and the final results below.
It is important to note that Petrobras entered the auction with preference rights for both fields, meaning it had the right to opt to operate the fields with a 30% stake if it did not win the auctions. We should also highlight that Petrobras also has the right to receive US$3,253,580,741 for Atapu and US$3,200,388,219 for Sepia from the winning consortia for previous investments made in the fields. Click here for more information on the rules that governed today’s TOR Surplus auction.
Finally, the exploratory risk in the fields is zero, as Atapu began producing in June 2020 (157,793.84 boe/d in November 2021) and Sepia started up last month (43.403,11 boe/d).
