OGX Winner in Brazilian Oil Auction

Brazilian Oil and exploration company OGX – a unit of holding company EBX - has won most of the first high-potential oil and natural gas blocks in a Brazilian government auction, leaving Brazil's state-run Petrobras sidelined.

Norwegian oil company StatoilHydro also announced that it had bid successfully on two blocks in Brazil.

The two blocks, which will be operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation who share the stake equally with StatoilHydro, are located in sea depths of around 100m.

The blocks lie adjacent to the heavy oil field Peregrino in the Campos basin in which StatoilHydro holds a 50 percent interest.

The auction, which ends today, will offer a total of 271 blocks in five offshore basins, 111 of which are considered to have "high potential" to hit oil or natural gas, Brazil's National Petroleum Agency (ANP) has announced.

This is the eighth licensing round offered by Brazil after opening exploration of its oil reserves to private investors in 1997.

By staff writer