Brazil to offer oil and gas blocks on permanent basis

Oil and gas blocks overlooked by companies at Brazil's E&P licensing rounds will subsequently be made available to bidders on a permanent basis, under a resolution approved by the national energy policy council (CNPE) on Thursday.

The policy will not include fields in the ultra-deepwater pre-salt polygon and other "strategic" areas, hydrocarbons regulator ANPsaid in a statement, without providing details of how the initiative will work.

It is understood the resolution applies to past and future auctions.

"The permanent offer of areas will stimulate new exploration activity ... , which is essential to ensuring production growth, restoring health to the local supply chain, and [guaranteeing] future revenues," ANP said.

The announcement comes less than two months after the government published a detailed oil and gas tender calendar that outlines key dates and areas for rights auctions in the next three years.

Brazil's oil and gas sector has been battered by the country's economic and political turbulence, falling crude prices and a colossal corruption scandal at state-run firm Petrobras.}

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