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QatarEnergy announced that it secured a 30 percent participating interest in seven offshore exploration blocks in Brazil through a consortium with state-controlled Petrobras. The blocks awarded in the 6th Concession Open Acreage Bid Round by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels are CE-M-471, CE-M-473, CE-M-475, CE-M-477, CE-M-537, CE-M-539 and CE-M-665. These blocks are all located in the Ceará Basin along the northeastern part of the country’s Equatorial Margin. The combined area of the blocks totals approximately 4,700 square kilometers.
HE Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, QatarEnergy president and CEO, said, “We are pleased with the success of these bids, which add prospective acreage to our upstream portfolio in Brazil. I would like to thank our valued partner Petrobras, with whom we worked closely on this partnership, as well as ANP and the Brazilian authorities for their valuable support. We look forward to further strengthening our partnership, and to work with all stakeholders for a successful exploration.” The minister’s comments were included in the official statement released shortly after the bid results. The contracts are expected to be signed in the first half of 2027, according to the company.
Brazil’s ANP held the bidding event on October 7 in Rio de Janeiro. Local reports indicated that the Petrobras and QatarEnergy consortium offered the winning bids for all seven blocks in the Ceará Basin that were available in that part of the auction. The group is to pay a total of 28.46 million reais as signature bonus for the licenses, ANP figures show.
QatarEnergy has progressively built its portfolio in Brazil with multiple successful bids over the years. The firm secured exploration rights to three blocks in the Campos Basin in 2019 in partnership with international oil companies including Shell and Chevron, according to records from that period’s announcements. In December 2022, QatarEnergy obtained a 20 percent stake in the Agua-Marinha Production Sharing Contract in the Campos Basin together with Petrobras, TotalEnergies and Petronas, an industry report from Offshore Energy stated at the time.
This latest addition aligns with QatarEnergy’s view of Brazil as a cornerstone of its international portfolio, a position the company’s CEO has expressed in earlier bid wins. The Equatorial Margin has become an area of growing interest for exploration companies following several ANP licensing rounds. QatarEnergy’s repeated successes in Brazilian bids reflect its ongoing engagement with local authorities and partners in the sector.
