Capitalismo companheiro: ambiente acolhedor? Dificilmente...

Empresas que arrematarem blocos e desistirem serão multadas, diz ANP

Marta Nogueira

Valor Econômico, 01/10/2013

RIO - A Agência Nacional do Petróleo (ANP) vai multar empresas que arrematarem blocos na 12ª Rodada de Licitação de blocos exploratórios de petróleo e não assinarem o contrato na data determinada no edital. A afirmação é do subprocurador-geral de assuntos estratégicos da Agência Nacional do Petróleo (ANP), Artur Watt.

A medida, segundo Watt, acontece para coibir empresas de fazer ofertas que não poderão cobrir posteriormente. A determinação acontece depois de a OGX, empresa do Grupo EBX, de Eike Batista, e a brasileira Petra, terem desistido de nove blocos arrematados na 11ª Rodada, cada uma delas. Ao todo, 24 blocos foram arrematados na 11ª Rodada e depois devolvidos.

Além de pagar a garantia de oferta, as empresas que desistirem dos ativos arrematados terão que pagar uma multa de 20% do somatório do valor do bônus de assinatura e do programa exploratório mínimo ofertado para o primeiro período exploratório. "Será um valor considerável", afirmou Watt.

Interest sours in Brazil’s Libra pre-salt oilfield auction

By Joe Leahy in São Paulo

Financial Times

What is not to like about an oilfield that over its lifetime is expected to generate revenue the equivalent of the annual gross domestic product of Austria?

Or, whose estimated reserves of 8bn-12bn barrels of oil or equivalent would be enough to more than match four years of US crude oil production at present averages if it was all extracted?

Yet in spite of these attractions, the auctionon October 21 of Brazil’s Libra oilfield, the first of the country’s giant so-called “pre-salt” discoveries to be offered under a new regulatory regime, will be much less fiercely contested than had been anticipated.

Only 11 companies of an expected 40 registered for the auction late last month. While national oil companies from around the world jumped at the opportunity, some of the biggest private sector names, including Chevron, ExxonMobil and BP, were conspicuously absent. The result suggestsBrazil’s pre-salt project could increasingly become a joint undertaking with foreign states, particularly China.

“We expected much more of a presence from the oil majors,” says Ivan Cima, an analyst with oil consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

The success of the Libra auction is important not only for the field itself but as a test of whether a new model for the oil industry set in place by the centre-left Workers’ Party government of President Dilma Rousseffwill work.

When state-owned oil operator Petrobras announced the discoveries in 2007, called “pre-salt” because they lie under a 2km layer of the material beneath the Atlantic, MsRousseff’s predecessor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rushed to place the state at the centre of their exploitation.

The model makes Petrobras the sole operator with a 30 per cent stake in all fields in the pre-salt area, which are located hundreds of kilometres off the coast near southeastern Brazilian cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Already partially explored, Libra is considered less risky than a virgin field. So the government is demanding a R$15bn ($6.8bn) signing bonus from the winning consortium, an amount considered steep by international standards.

The new model for the pre-salt is also a production-sharing contract rather than the concession-based model that still applies for other fields in Brazil.

Under a production-sharing contract, the government retains ownership of the resource allowing the operator to profit from selling a share of the oil, while under a concession model, the company owns the resource but returns a share to the state through taxes and royalties.

“Exploration risk is low in the pre-salt area, ie the possibility of finding oil is higher and thus it is more appropriate to use the sharing system,” the government says on its website, Portal Brasil.

The registration for the auction drew strong interest from China’s three major oil groups, China National Petroleum Corporation, the parent of PetroChina, Sinopec (which entered through its joint venture with Spain’s Repsol), and Cnooc. Other state-owned companies participating included India’s ONGC Videsh, Petronas of Malaysia and Ecopetrol of Colombia. Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Total and Japan’s Mitsui also participated.

Among the absentees, other than the US groups and BP, was the UK’s BG Group, which has already a large presence in Brazil. The failure of Chevron and Exxon was blamed in some quarters on a political controversy over US spying on Brazil, including on Petrobras.

But analysts say Libra contains important operational challenges for private sector participants.

For one thing, with only one exploration well drilled, Libra is still not a fully understood field and therefore is relatively high-risk for such a large signing bonus.

Then there is the issue of partnering with Petrobras. The company’s plate is already full with the world’s biggest corporate capital expenditure programme, worth $237bn in the five years to 2017, which covers everything from exploration and production to building refineries.

With its cash being drained by an unofficial government fuel subsidy – Petrobras must import petrol at international prices and sell it at lossmaking lower prices on the domestic market – the company’s finances are looking strained. External investors in Libra will in effect be “sleeping partners” of Petrobras, which will operate the fields.

“Maybe down the road the government will decide Petrobras does not have the resources to be operator on every pre-salt field,” says one oil industry executive. “But since this [Libra] is the first one they are going to go by the book.”

To add to the complexity, the government is setting up Pré-Sal Petróleo, a state company that will directly represent federal interests in the pre-salt fields. No one knows who will chair it or what it will really do. On top of this, there are stringent local content requirements for Libra, which given the complexity of the ultra-deep water field are likely to add to the costs.

Mr Cima, of Wood Mackenzie, estimates break-even on a 10 per cent discounted cash flow basis will only happen at Libra 16 years from now – assuming no delays in developing the field.

“This is a very long-term undertaking and the international oil companies might have believed there are better opportunities further afield,” he says. “It better suits resource-hungry state-owned companies.”