Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter International giants ponied up some $2 billion in Brazil’s pre-salt Transfer of Rights (TOR) area bid round for stakes in the Sepia and Atapu fields. French major TotalEnergies teamed up with Malaysia's Petronas and QatarEnergy on the winning bid for the Sepia field. The trio offered a 37.43% share of the future oil production in the Sepia field to the state — known as "profit oil" — significantly above the minimum required percentage of 15.02%. Petrobras exercised its preferential rights to join the Sepia consortium after making a smaller offer for the field on its own. Petrobras, Total and Shell placed the only offer for the Atapu area with an offer of a 31.68% profit oil share, well above the 5.89% minimum required. The combined signing bonuses from the two winning bids totaled nearly $2 billion. The outcome of the round came as redemption for Brazilian officials after the disappointing results in the country's first TOR round in 2019, which saw scant participation by companies other than Petrobras. Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque estimated the blocks awarded in the auction will allow for a 12% increase in domestic production over the next five to six years.
