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* ANP recommends selling subsalt rights every two years
* Selling subsalt rights every year is complicated -ANP
* First subsalt production-share auction planned for Nov.
By Rodrigo Viga Gaier
RIO DE JANEIRO, April 15 (Reuters) - Brazil plans to offeras much as 40 billion barrels of oil in place in its firstauction of subsalt production-sharing contracts in November, thecountry's oil regulator told reporters in Rio de Janeiro onMonday.
The large amount of oil on offer led the regulator torecommend to the government that such sales be held about everytwo years.
"Selling in the subsalt every year is complicated," MagdaChambriard, head of the agency known as the ANP, told reporters."There is a lot of volume," she said.
According to BP Plc and Reuters, 40 billion barrelsof oil is enough to supply all U.S. needs for nearly 14 years.The ANP estimate, though, was for oil in place.
Oil in place reflects total volumes in the expectedreservoirs. The amount of oil actually recoverable from areservoir is usually far below the amount of oil in place.
The rules for the first such auction, scheduled for Nov. 28,will be released in May or June, Chambriard said.
Under oil rules passed in 2010, all new rights in theSubsalt Polygon near Rio de Janeiro will be sold to groupswilling to give the Brazilian government the largest cut ofoutput to sell on its own account. The Polygon, which coversmost of Brazil's Campos and Santos sedimentary basins, is wherethe country already produces about 80 percent of its oil.
All new production in the Polygon will also require thatstate-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA,or Petrobras, have a minimum 30 percent stake in the project andserve as the operator or group leader.
Previous auctions, held annually for a decade until 2008,the year after giant new fields were found in the Santos Basin,sold oil exploration and production rights as concessions. Inexchange for the payment of a royalty for all oil and naturalgas produced, the winner became owner of the oil produced fromthe field.
The government will hold an oil rights concession auction onMay 14 and 15. The auction, the first in Brazil in five years,will be for frontier areas on shore and offshore outside of theSubsalt Polygon.
Regulator Chambriard also said that a planned sale of oilexploration rights in mature areas to small and medium-sized oilcompanies will likely happen in 2014. These two auctions willalso be governed by the old concession rules.
