Brazil's ANP approves 86 exploration blocks for Open Acreage concession portfolio

The board of directors at Brazil's National Petroleum Agency approved 86 offshore oil and natural gas exploration and production blocks in the country's promising equatorial margin for the Open Acreage concession program's portfolio, according to the country's lead regulator for the oil and gas industry.

The concession blocks were spread across three sedimentary basins in Brazil's equatorial margin, which stretches along the country's northern coastline from Amapa state in the west to Rio Grande do Norte state in the east, the ANP said after the board's latest meeting June 26. A total of 36 blocks were approved in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, 25 blocks in the Para-Maranhao Basin and 25 blocks in the Barreirinhas Basin.

The approval was part of an updated strategic calendar for 2026-2027 released by the ANP on June 12, when the regulator unveiled plans to add two subsalt production-sharing blocks and more than 100 concession blocks to the Open Acreage production-sharing and concession portfolios.

The blocks, however, won't be included in the ANP's upcoming sixth Open Acreage concession auction scheduled for Oct. 7, the regulator said. The 86 concession blocks still need to clear several regulatory hurdles, including joint approval of preliminary environmental impact studies from the Mines and Energy Ministry and Brazil's Ministry for the Environment and Climate Change.

The blocks will also be subject to a public audience period needed to update the Open Acreage programs' auction rules and concession contracts to include the new blocks, the ANP said.

In addition to the 86 concession blocks, the ANP's board also approved the redesign of the offshore SFZA-AP4 sector in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, the ANP said. Two exploration and production concession blocks were added to the ultra-deepwater sector after Brazil recently received UN approval to extend its maritime development rights in the continental shelf beyond its exclusive economic zone.

The ANP has dramatically expanded the concession and production-sharing portfolios in recent months, after the number of available blocks dwindled following a series of successful auctions and delays in securing approvals for new blocks.

The Open Acreage concession portfolio currently includes 495 blocks after the ANP added 45 onshore and offshore blocks in May. That followed the addition of 275 new blocks in November 2025.

The ANP also launched an expanded Open Acreage production-sharing portfolio in April, increasing the number of subsalt blocks available to 23, up from eight previously.

The updated Open Acreage production sharing portfolio features eight subsalt blocks in the Campos Basin, including Azurita, Calcita, Hematita, Larimar, Magnetita, Onix, Siderita and Turmalina, the ANP said. The Santos Basin blocks included in the latest portfolio adjustments were Agata, Amazonita, Aragonita, Calcedonia, Cerussita, Cruzeiro do Sul, Granada, Jade, Malaquita, Opala, Quartzo, Rodocrosita, Rubi, Safira Leste and Safira Oeste.

The expanded portfolios attracted attention from the global oil industry, with the ANP announcing the country's sixth Open Acreage concession sale and fourth Open Acreage production sharing auction May 22. The public bidding sessions will be held Oct. 7.

The ANP held the fifth cycle of the Open Acreage concession program in June 2025, when 34 onshore and offshore blocks were sold. The sale raised a total of $180.2 million in signing bonuses and yielded an estimated $266 million in investments, primarily in seismic surveys in new frontier areas.

The third Open Acreage production-sharing auction was held in October 2025, when the ANP sold five of the seven eligible blocks. The auction generated $19.6 million in signing bonuses and estimated investments of about $85.2 million.

Registers companies

The ANP's board of directors also approved registrations for several companies that signed up to participate in the Oct. 7 Open Acreage concession and production-sharing auctions, the regulator said in a separate statement June 26.

A total of 46 companies registered for the sixth Open Acreage concession auction, up from 36 companies registered for the fifth sale in October 2025, the ANP said. The 10 companies added included six newcomers and four previously suspended from the program that were approved after submitting updated documents.

The fourth Open Acreage production-sharing auction will include 19 companies, up from 15 in the third sale in October 2025, the ANP said. Its board approved registration requests from Portugal's Galp Energia, Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co., Spain's Repsol and Spanish-Chinese joint-venture company Repsol Sinopec.

Oil companies registered for the two auctions now have until July 21 to submit declarations of interest and provide guarantees for any of the concession and production-sharing blocks available, according to the ANP.