On 4 May 2018, the MME published a press release indicating approved of holding the 5th PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round that includes four blocks.Â  President Temer has to now grant approval but this is expected shortly.Â  The four blocks include the Pau Brasil block, the Tartaruga Verde block, the Saturno block, and the Tita block.Â  The Saturno block includes the previous Saturno area plus the S-M-645 block removed from the ANP Round 15.Â  The Tita block will include the northeastern portion of the former Saturno block and the S-M-534 block removed from the ANP Round 15.Â  The S-M-534 and S-M-645 were classified as âStrategic Areasâ and is the reason they have now been incorporated into the pre-salt demarcated area and can be offered only under the PSC model contract regime.Â  The preliminary schedule reported was for the bid submittal to be on 28 September 2018.Â  Petrobras now has 30 days after publication in the DOF to exercise its preferential rights for any blocks in the round.  The Pau Brasil block received no bids in the 3rd PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round and the Sudoeste de Tartaruga Verde received no bids in the 2nd PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round, both held in October 2017.Â  The ANP will present its request for the addition of the blocks to the CNPE who will also decide on holding the 5th PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round as a separate round in 2018 and if the Saturno, S-M-534, and S-M-645 blocks will also be included in the round.   On 4 April 2018, the ANP published a press release indicating the possible addition of the Pau Brasil and Sudoeste de Tartaruga Verde blocks to the 5th PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round which would bring the total number of blocks on offer to five.Â  The Pau Brasil block received no bids in the 3rd PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round and the Sudoeste de Tartaruga Verde received no bids in the 2nd PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round, both held in October 2017.Â  The ANP will present its request for the addition of the blocks to the CNPE who will also decide on holding the 5th PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round as a separate round in 2018 and if the Saturno, S-M-534, and S-M-645 blocks will also be included in the round.   On 2 April 2018, the MME published a press release indicating the possible addition of the 5th PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round to be held in 2018 with three blocks on offer, Saturno block if it is removed from the ANP 4th Pre-Salt Bid Round, and two blocks removed from the ANP Round 15, the S-M-534 and the S-M-645 blocks.Â  This is what it will propose to the CNPE.Â  It is unclear when and how fast the CNPE will rule on this proposal.Â  That may be the reason that the final tender documents for the ANP 4th Pre-Salt Bid Round have not yet been published, the date originally set was 29 March 2018.Â  Also it will mean that Petrobras will have another chance to have preferential rights for the block that it did not choose in the ANP 4th Pre-Salt Bid Round.  On 2 April 2018, the MME published a press release indicating a possible modification to the 4th PSC Pre-Salt Bid Round with the removal of the Saturno block that would leave four blocks available in the round. The current planned ANP 5th Pre-Salt Bid Round would become the ANP 6th Pre-Salt Bid Round.  Preliminary Map with proposed ANP and MME modifications to ANP 4th, 5th Pre-Salt Bid Rounds â 4 May 2018
Brazil, Tartaruga