Brazil Awards Seven Pre-Salt Oil Blocks as CNOOC and Sinopec Take the Jade Block
Brazil's oil regulator, the ANP, held its pre-salt block auction on October 7. Agencia Brasil reported, in coverage carried by multiple financial outlets, that seven of the 13 blocks on offer were awarded, generating about 530 million reais in signing bonuses and roughly 778 million reais in minimum exploration commitments, with contracts scheduled for signing on February 26, 2027.
The Jade block went to a Chinese-led consortium: a consortium led by China's CNOOC won it with an offer of 18.20 percent of excess oil, above the 10.98 percent minimum. CNOOC holds 70 percent of the consortium and Sinopec 30 percent. Jade sits in the Santos Basin, whose deep-water province accounted for 82.6 percent of Brazil's oil and natural gas production in August 2026, according to the auction reporting.
In the same round, a consortium of Norway's Equinor and Portugal's Galp Energia won the Rodocrosita block, adjacent to the partners' existing Bacalhau field in the Santos Basin. Equinor will operate it with 70 percent and Galp holds 30 percent; the block carried the auction's highest premium and a signing bonus of 20.8 million reais, with a profit-oil offer of 15.52 percent.
Analysts said the pre-salt is the crown jewel of Brazil's oil industry, and that holding the auction days before a presidential runoff did not dent long-term international appetite for Brazilian deep-water acreage. The Chinese position in Jade also extends Chinese energy companies' established presence offshore Brazil.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴西海上石油平台。摄影：Arquivo ABr，CC BY 3.0 br，取自 Wikimedia Commons
