The winners have emerged from Brazil’s long-awaited 11th oil and gas licensing round, with the major players unsurprisingly including the likes of Petrobras, BP, Statoil, BHP Billiton and Total, who all walked away with significant hauls of deepwater exploration acreage.

The round set a new record for upfront bonuses, with companies committing to invest 2.82 Bn Reais (US $1.91 Bn) for oil and gas concessions, beating the previous highest figure of 2.1 Bn Reais set at the 9th bidding round in 2007, according to the national hydrocarbons agency ANP.

Winning bidders now have up to eight years to develop projects and 30 years to complete exploration activities, according to the ANP.

Amongst the winners was UK major BP, which was awarded eight deepwater exploration blocks, with its partners Total, Petrobras and Petrogal. BP will operate two of the blocks. The companies have committed to explore blocks FZA-M-57, FZA-M-59, FZA-M-86, FZA-M-88, FZA-M-125, and FAZ-M-127, all in the Foz do Amazonas basin, as well as block BAR-M-346 in the Barreirinhas basin and POT-M-764 in the Potiguar basin. BP will operate block FZA-M-59 with a 70% stake, while in block BAR-M-346 it will be the operator with a 50% stake, with Total its 50% partner.

The signing of the contracts, in which BP will participate through its Brazilian subsidiary BP Energy do Brasil Ltda., is expected to take place in August this year.

Total of France will participate with BP in six of the awarded blocks, and as operator with a 40% stake in five of those awarded in the Foz do Amazonas basin (FZA-M-59, FZA-M-86, FZA-M-88, FZA-M-125, and FAZ-M-127). BP and Petrobras will each hold 30% in those blocks.

The French operator was awarded a total of 10 new exploration licences in the round. In addition to its operated five blocks in the Foz do Amazonas basin, it will also have a 45% operated interest in block CE-M-661 in the Ceara basin. It also acquired a 25% working interest in three blocks (ES-M-669, ES-M-671 and ES-M-743) in the Espirito Santo basin, as well as a 50% interest in block BAR-M-346 in the Barreirinhas basin.

Total is already the operator of the Xerelete field, around 250 km offshore in the Campos basin, in which further drilling activities are planned to acquire more reservoir data.

Norway’s Statoil was the highest bidder on six licences in the round, all in the Espirito Santo basin. Out of the six awarded, Statoil will be the operator of four and a partner in two.

The licences are located in the deepwater sector of the Espirito Santo basin, close to licences BM-ES-32 and BM-ES-22A operated by Petrobras and in which Statoil is already a partner. The blocks have an exploration phase of seven years, divided in to two periods of five years and two years, and the total well commitment for the six licences is 10 wells. The awarded blocks were: ES-M-596 (Petrobras 50%, Statoil 50%), ES-M-598 (Statoil 40%, Petrobras 40%, Queiroz Galvão E&P 20%), ES-M-669 (Petrobras 40%, Total 25%, Statoil 35%), ES-M-671 (Statoil 35%, Petrobras 40%, Total 25%), ES-M-673 (Statoil 40%, Queiroz Galvão E&P 20%, Petrobras 40%), ES-M-743 (Statoil 35%, Petrobras 40%, Total 25%).

In December last year Statoil also acquired a 25% participating interest from Vale SA in BM-ES-22A in the Espirito Santo Basin, which Petrobras operates with a 75% interest. The farm-in is still pending ANP approval.

Another UK player, BG Group, was awarded participation in 10 out of 12 offshore blocks on which it bid. Among those was a winning bid of $200m in signing bonuses and $700m of potential investment in up to seven wells in the Barreirinhas basin off northern Brazil.

Petrobras, of course, played a major role in the round – acquiring the most blocks and offering the biggest signature bonus in the round. The Brazilian state-owned operator acquired either on its own or in partnership a total of 34 of the 289 blocks offered in the round.

It also secured, it said, in its technicians’ opinions the blocks with the highest exploratory potential offered by the ANP, located in the Foz do Amazonas, Espírito Santo and Barreirinhas basins. Petrobras and its partners invested R$ 1,460.9m in the round, of which R$ 537.9m came from its own resources and R$ 923m from partners.

OGX and ExxonMobil also won exploration blocks in a frontier region of the Potiguar basin. OGX agreed to pay 20m Reais (US $10m) for the rights to the PN-M-475 block, and a OGX-Exxon Mobil consortium agreed to pay 81.9m Reais for PN-M-762.