A consortium of oil firms Petrobras and Shell secured two offshore areas in Brazil's Mero and Atapu fields in an oil auction held on Thursday by state-run firm PPSA.
The consortium, the auction's sole bidder, made offers of 7.79 billion reais ($1.47 billion) for the Mero area, about two per cent above the minimum price, and one billion reais for the Atapu area, 16 per cent above. A third area in the Tupi field did not receive bids.
The auction offered stakes in oil fields already in production but not yet contracted, basically granting the firms the right to profit from additional output. As Brent crude prices tumble, the results fell short of the Brazilian government's goal of raising at least 10.2 billion reais to boost revenue.
Petrobras said in a securities filing it will disburse 6.97 billion reais for the transactions, whose contracts are expected to be signed by March 2026.
The disbursement was planned, it said, adding that although volumes have not been forecast, they should land within the margin of a production curve projection it set in its 2026-2030 business plan, published last month.
Analysts at Santander cautioned that despite their positive view on Petrobras' increased exposure to the highly productive pre-salt area, the payment should affect 2026 dividends.
Sao Paulo-listed preferred shares of Petrobras were up one per cent in midday trading, while the benchmark stock index Bovespa rose 1.5 per cent.
(Reporting by Fabio Teixeira, additional reporting by Fernando Cardoso; Editing by Gabriel Araujo, Rod Nickel)
