Majors Bag Pre-Salt Blocks as Brazil Prepares to Vote

摘要

Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and BP all picked up stakes in pre-salt oil blocks offered at Brazil's latest upstream auction, which took place just ahead of the country's potentially game-changing presidential election on Oct. 7. Brazil's fifth competitive pre-salt auction raised 6.8 billion reals ($1.7 billion) in signing bonuses. Four blocks - holding an estimated 17 billion barrels of oil in place - were up for grabs and all four were awarded under 35-year production-sharing contracts. The government estimates that its revenues from future oil production from the blocks could reach $60 billion.