On 27 October 2017 Petrobras and partner BP were granted a preliminary award for being the high bidder of the Alto de Cabo Frio Central block in the 3rd PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round.Â  Petrobras as operator with 50% working interest exercised its preferential rights for the block and with 50% partner BP, offered the highest state take of profit oil at 75.86% and USD 151.98 million in total fixed bonus to be paid to the Brazilian government based on the USD to BRL exchange rate of the day of 1USD/3.29 BRL.Â  There was a distant 2nd place bid for the block by the consortium of Petrobras (30%), CNOOC (20%), QPI (20%), and Shell (30%) offering a state take bid of 46.41%.Â Â  The PSC contract has a seven year exploration-evaluation phase and the minimum work program is to drill one exploration well. The minimum financial guaranty for the three year period is USD 47.95 million which is less than the estimated cost of drilling a pre-salt exploration well. Â 
Petrobras (50%), BP (50%) prelim. awarded Alto de Cabo Frio Central during 3rd PSC Pre-Salt deepwater round.