64 Interested in Marginal Oil Field Round

Sixty-four companies have shown interest in bidding for Brazil's Marginal Oil Field Bidding Round, which will take place early next year, Gazeta Mercantil (Brazil) reported. Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) will tender 73 fields controlled by state oil company Petrobras, considered unfeasible for a company of its size due to their production levels. The companies are mostly small Brazilian enterprises, some of which have been created specifically for the round, such as Starfish and Carcara Petroleo, Gazeta adds. Among the bigger companies that have registered to bid are Coastal and Union Pacific Resources from the US and Odebrecht and Queiroz Galvao from Brazil. The complete list of companies registered will be disclosed October 9. Most of the fields to be sold are in northeastern Brazil, some of which only produce as little as 10 barrels per day. The companies that secure the concessions will have to invest in oil recovery work to increase production. One of the issues that has concerned companies that are planning to bid is the real capacity of some of the fields to actually increase production, and if some of the fields should be taken out of the list of offered assets.