document: The ANP on 17 April 2018 extended the contracts for 11 blocks from ANP Round 12 and five from Round 11 in the Reconcavo, Parnaiba and Sergipe-Alagoas basins for two years. Both rounds were conducted in 2013. The extended contracts are from Petrobras for REC-T-52, REC-T-80, REC-T-50, REC-T-51, REC-T-60, REC-T-32, REC-T-61, REC-T-40, SEAL-T-420, SEAL-T-112, PN-T-150 and PN-T-166, Galp (PN-T-182 and PN-T-136) and Geopark (REC-T-94 and SEAL-T-268). The first exploration phase of these contracts was previously due to end in 2019 or 2020. The possibility to extend the contracts was made official by a resolution of the National Energy Policy Council (CNPE) in February 2017 and in October 2017 the ANP issued a resolution regulating the signature of amendments to Round 11 and 12 contracts for the exploration phase. The ANP also noted that to be eligible for the extensions that operators must comply with all obligations of the contracts, especially the payment of special participation taxes in addition to paying the financial guarantees for the work programs. The extensions were the result of arguments by the companies that they had to reschedule exploration programs due to low oil prices and long delays in the environmental licensing process. Brazil currently has 154 contracts from Rounds 11 and 12 which include 46 offshore blocks and 108 onshore blocks.
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