The Sepia and Atapu areas, which were unbid in the recent highly anticipated but disappointing Onerous Assignment Surplus Production Rights Bid, also called the Transfer Rights area, in the Santos Basin pre-salt polygon, could be again put up for bid in the first half of 2020, according to sources in the Brazilian government. The idea is to review and evaluate the bid parameters with enough time to requalify the areas for bid was the message delivered at a conference, in Rio de Janeiro. The official maintained that the government should continue planning the 2020 rounds while also discussing with Congress whether to maintain the Petrobras right of first refusal and the possibility of offering blocks in the pre-salt polygon under the concession model. The debate over what will be done with these unbid blocks will be on the agenda at the first Investment Partnership Program (PPI) meeting in 2020. On 6 November 2019, Brazil held its Onerous Assignment Surplus Production Rights Bid. What was touted to be the richest bid round ever wound up being disappointing as high signature bonus requirements deterred most oil majors from bidding in the round except for Petrobras with a minor participation by Chinese state companies CNOOC and CNODC. The minimum profit oil specified for the bid round was set at 23.24% for Buzios and 18.15% for Itapu. The Petrobras bid offered the minimum for both blocks. These companies were the only bidders as over a dozen majors registered for the round declined to place bids and two of the four offered blocks did not receive bids. The CNPE set the signature bonus 22.86 billion reais (US$ 5.5 billion, first oil expected 2021) for Sepia, 13.74 billion reais (US$ 3.5 billion, first oil expected 2020) for Atapu. The lack of participation in the round was a harsh blow to Brazil which was depending on a big revenue boost from the round to offset substantial government deficits from a sagging economy over the last few years. The failure of the round was blamed by experts on the expensive signing bonuses, the complex and difficult to understand production-sharing contracts which would require unitization and an untested framework where Petrobras would have full rights to some reserves while winning bidders would in theory only have the rights to reserves above 5 Bboe. Complicated Petrobras reimbursement requirements lacking transparency and marginal economics with substantial risk over time were other factors cited for the poor results of the round. Brazilian officials said the results were satisfactory but acknowledged that giving Petrobras preferential rights ownership and operating rights in the pre-salt was bad for competition and suggested the government might end that legal provision in the future. Reimbursable investment costs in the round were determined to be US$ 2.37 billion for Sepia and US$ 1.93 billion for Atapu and surplus volumes for the blocks were estimated to be 550 MMboe in Atapu and 500 MMboe in Sepia. 
The Sepia and Atapu areas, which were unbid in the recent highly anticipated but disappointing Onerous Assignment Surplus Production Rights Bid, also called the Transfer Rights area, in the Santos Basin pre-salt polygon, could be again put up for bid in the first half of 2020, according to sources in the Brazilian government.