RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Brazil will hold the13th round of its oil rights auctions in the first half of nextyear, a senior mines and energy ministry official said onMonday.
Marco Antonio Martins, the undersecretary in charge of theoil industry at the ministry, said at an industry event in Riode Janeiro that the auction will sell blocks under a concessionsystem.
The areas for auction will be outside the so-called SubsaltPolygon, where oil is trapped beneath the seabed by a layer ofsalt, and where under Brazilian law exploration can only be doneon production-sharing contracts with the Brazilian government. (Reporting by Jeb Blount and Marta Nogueira; Writing by StephenEisenhammer; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
