Photo: screengrab from the official website of Brasil 247

By Brasil 247 - Chinese energy companies CNOOC and Sinopec, two of China's largest oil and gas producers, won the Ametista block in Brazil's Santos Basin on Wednesday (October 22), during the country's 3rd Production Sharing Permanent Offer Round (OPP) held by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in Rio de Janeiro.

The Chinese consortium — led by CNOOC with a 70% operating stake and Sinopec with 30% — submitted the only bid for the area, offering 9% of profit oil to the Brazilian government, which represents the share of production allocated to the federal treasury.

The result highlights the growing role of Asian energy companies in Brazil's oil and gas sector, particularly in the pre-salt polygon, one of the world's richest deepwater oil provinces.

Seven pre-salt blocks on offer

The 3rd Production Sharing Permanent Offer Round featured seven pre-salt blocks: Esmeralda and Ametista in the Santos Basin, and Citrino, Itaimbezinho, Ônix, Larimar, and Jaspe in the Campos Basin.

In total, 15 domestic and international companies were qualified to participate, including Petrobras, 3R Petroleum, BP Energy, Chevron, CNOOC, Ecopetrol, Equinor, Karoon, Petrogal, Petronas, Prio, QatarEnergy, Shell, Sinopec, and TotalEnergies.

Petrobras marked its return to Brazil's pre-salt auctions after a two-year absence, winning two blocks — Citrino and Jaspe — one of them in consortium with Equinor.

How the Production Sharing Offer Works

The Permanent Offer under the Production Sharing Regime is currently Brazil's main bidding mechanism for oil and gas exploration and production. Unlike traditional auction rounds, this model keeps exploration blocks continuously available, allowing companies to submit bids at any time, provided they are pre-qualified by the ANP.

Under the production sharing regime, used for strategic pre-salt areas, part of the extracted oil and gas is allocated to the federal government — known as profit oil.

In this model, the contracted company or consortium is entitled to a portion of production sufficient to recover its investment costs — the so-called cost oil — while the remaining output is shared between the operator and the federal government. The winning bidder is the one offering the highest percentage of profit oil to the Union, above a minimum threshold established in the tender notice.

(Reported by Brasil 247 on October 22, 2025)