On 12 March 2020, the ANP board of directors approved the assignment of 25% interest from the ONGC Campos Ltda subsidiary of India's ONGC to Petrobras on the BM-BAR-1 Block, in the frontier Barreirinhas Basin. Petrobras will now hold 100% of the license. On 1 May 2019, antitrust regulator Cade approved this requested transfer 25% to Petrobras from ONGC. Petrobras said that ONGC requested to leave the project in 2012 but the request was denied due to debt on the project which was only resolved after a lengthy international arbitration. Petrobras claimed ONGC did not make an agreed payment with them thus triggering default clause 13.1 of the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) that did not allow ONGC to withdraw from the block before the issue was resolved. The issue gave rise to an arbitration process that was only resolved in 2018, so ONGC could legally withdraw from the project. The BM-BAR-1 Block was acquired by Petrobras in ANP Round 3 in 2001. The 1BRSA1015MAS well discovered gas on the block and in 2012 twice reported natural gas shows to the ANP. In November 2017, the ANP suspended the concession contract for the area due to the difficulty faced by Petrobras in obtaining an environmental license to drill there. With the decision of the ANP, the exploration acreage of the block and the Discovery Assessment Plan (PAD) for the 1BRSA1015MAS were suspended until Petrobras obtains an environmental license to drill a well there. The ANP also added 730 days to the contract of the PAD to be counted after Ibama issues a drilling permit for the block. The ANP in March 2013 approved an evaluation plan based on the 1BRSA1015MAS discovery well. The well has a total depth of 3,285m and was targeting the Late Cretaceous Travosas Formation turbidite sandstones with a PTD of 4,028m. It was drilled in a water depth of 1,253m. <P />
ONGC Campos Ltda subsidiary of India's ONGC has transferred 25% interest on the BM-BAR-001 Block to Petrobras (->100%).