BRASILIA, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's incoming governmentplans to modify future pre-salt oil auctions and favors aconcession model over the current production-sharing scheme, asenior transition team official said on Thursday.
President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime economicnationalist and far-right legislator, modified his stance on theway to his election last month, declaring himself open toselling state assets and ceding ground over the government'srole in the energy sector.
A senior transition team source, who was not authorized tospeak publicly, said Bolsonaro's administration would seek tomodify the current production-sharing contract model for itspre-salt deep water oil fields. It plans to adopt a concessionmodel that would involve less state interference.
Last month, newspaper Valor reported Bolsonaro's team wasplanning to tweak the production-sharing model to attack some ofthe political abuses perpetrated by previous administrations.
Brazil's state-led oil company Petroleo Brasileirowas at the center of an investigation dubbed"Car Wash" that uncovered a massive and long-running pay-to-playcorruption scheme.
The government found that political parties and politicallyappointed executives took over 6 billion reais ($1.58 billion)in bribes, mainly from construction and engineering firms, inexchange for winning contracts with Petrobras.
Scores of powerful businessmen and politicians, includingformer president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have been jailed inconnection to the case.
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The adoption of a concession model would be the latest in agrowing number of announcements by the incoming administrationthat have cheered investors who want to see bold measures tooverhaul the country's economy and patch up its creaky publicfinances.
The production-sharing model, which was rolled out by theleftist Workers Party (PT) and reformed by the center-rightgovernment of Michel Temer, gives the government a share of oilincome.
It has proved successful in recent auctions, luring oilmajors like Exxon Mobil Corp Chevron Corp,Repsol SA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and BP Plc.
Higher oil prices and the need to replace shrinking reserveshave boosted oil majors' appetites for costlier offshoreventures, pumping much-needed money into the government'scoffers.
The PT ran Brazil for 13 of the last 15 years and has beenblamed by critics for a weak economy and endemic graft. Temertook office in 2016 after former PT President Dilma Rousseff wasimpeached.($1 = 3.8081 reais)(Reporting by Mateus Maia and Lisandra ParaguassuEditing by Sandra Maler, Brad Brooks and Jeffrey Benkoe)
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