The oil and gas authority in Brazil says it given 12 companies permission to bid for the rights to explore for oil offshore that will be auctioned on October 10, including CNOOC Petroleum Brasil Ltda, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC).
The authority issued on Monday a written statement saying the rights to explore 36 blocks are up for sale, together covering 29,300 square kilometres of the Pernambuco-Paraíba, Jacuípe, Camamu-Almada, Campos and Santos fields.
All the companies so far given permission to bid are foreign except for Brazilian state-owned oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras), but other companies may yet be given permission, the Brazilian oil and gas authority says.
The Brazilian government launched the South American country’s 16th oil exploration rights tender back in March.
