A consortium comprising Qatar Petroleum, Shell, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) was selected as the winning bidder for the Alto de Cabo Frio-Oeste block in the prolific Santos hydrocarbon basin offshore Brazil.

The block was offered as part of Brazil's 3rd production sharing bidding round, which covered some four blocks located in the "pre-salt polygon" region in the Santos and Campos basins: Pau Brasil, Peroba, Alto de Cabo Frio-Oeste, and Alto de Cabo Frio-Central, Qatar Petroleum announced.

The selection results were announced by Brazil's National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) at the public bidding session held on Friday in Rio de Janeiro, during which participants submitted their bids for the various blocks on offer and the winners of each block were announced upon opening of the bids at the same event.

Commenting on the development, Qatar Petroleum president & CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said, “We are pleased that our consortium was awarded this block in Brazil, which contains some of the most promising hydrocarbon prone areas in the world. This important achievement is another result of our strategy to expand our international upstream footprint and further expand our presence in Brazil, with which we have excellent relations."

"We hope that the exploration efforts, which will commence soon with our consortium partners, will be a success. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Brazilian authorities for the transparent and timely process, and to express our gratitude to our consortium partners, Shell and CNOOC for the excellent collaboration on this opportunity”, al-Kaabi added.

“The relevant legal agreements, including the production sharing agreement, are expected to be signed between the Brazilian authorities and the consortium members in December of this year,” Qatar Petroleum said.

The integrated national oil corporation, Qatar Petroleum is responsible for the sustainable development of Qatar’s oil and gas industry.

Qatar Petroleum’s activities encompass the entire spectrum of the oil and gas value chain locally, regionally, and internationally, and include the exploration, refining, production, marketing and sales of oil and gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), natural gas liquids (NGL), gas to liquids (GTL) products, refined products, petrochemicals, fertilizers, steel and aluminum.

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