(Adds details on bids, adds analyst comment)
By Gram Slattery, Marta Nogueira and Sabrina Valle
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - TotalEnergies SE
, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Petrobras, Petronas
and Qatar Energy scooped up two blockbuster offshore fields in
Brazil on Friday, raking in 11.14 billion reais ($1.96 billion)
in signing bonuses for the government.
TotalEnergies, Qatar Energy and Malaysia's Petronas won the
rights to develop the coveted Sepia field, while Brazil's
state-run Petrobras, formally Petroleo Brasileiro SA,
later entered the consortium by exercising preference rights.
Petrobras, Total and Shell won the rights to the nearby
Atapu field.
The auction was widely seen as a test of Brazil's investment
climate and of large oil producers' willingness to keep spending
big on traditional assets. Officials, who had been keen to
attract major foreign players, deemed it a success, and analysts
said the offers agreed to were relatively rich.
While the signing bonuses were fixed at 7.138 billion reais
for Sepia and 4.002 billion reais for Atapu, the percentage of
oil produced that will be handed over to the state, known as
'oil profit,' varied depending on the bidder. Oil profit for the
winning Atapu consortium came to 31.68%, while oil profit for
the winning Sepia bid came to 37.43%.
Bids "were high, which reduces returns," said Marcelo de
Assis, head of Latin America upstream research at Wood McKenzie.
"They were more aggressive than we expected."
Brazil-listed preferred shares in Petrobras were off 2% in
afternoon trade, underperforming the nation's benchmark Bovespa
equities index, which had fallen 0.9%. London-listed
shraes in Shell were off 1.8% on Friday.
Brazil attempted to sell both fields in 2019, but neither
received https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-oil-auction-idUSKBN1XH1X3
offers, even from Petrobras. At the time, complex legal issues
and rich signing bonuses kept oil majors away https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-oil-petrobras-exxon-mobil-excl-idINKBN1XI2DC.
This time, bidding terms were considered more attractive https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2SZ1VO,
several industry sources told Reuters, largely due to big cuts
in signing bonuses. Brazil also cut the minimum profit oil
significantly.
The fields are considered attractive as Petrobras has
already discovered commercially recoverable oil in both blocks,
eliminating exploration risk.
Sepia and Atapu could boost Brazilian oil production by 12%
over the next decade and bring in almost $40 billion in
investment, the nation's Energy Ministry said on Monday.
Petrobras is set to receive $6.2 billion for past investments in
the two fields.
Eleven companies signed up for the chance to bid on Friday:
Petrobras, Exxon Mobil Corp, Shell, Galp Energia SGPS SA
, Chevron Corp, Ecopetrol SA, Equinor
ASA, Enauta Participacoes SA, Petronas,
TotalEnergies and Qatar Energy.
Petrobras holds a 30% stake in the winning Sepia consortium,
TotalEnergies holds 28%, and Petronas and Qatar Energy hold 21%
each. At Atapu, Petrobras holds a 52.5% stake, Shell has a 25%
stake and TotalEnergies a 22.5% stake.
Both fields are in the early stages of production.
($1 = 5.68 reais)
(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Marta Nogueira in Rio de
Janeiro and Sabrina Valle in Houston; Editing by David Gregorio,
Alexander Smith and Diane Craft)
