Oil and gas industry news : ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum (QP) have bagged rights for the Tita exploration block offshore Brazil during the country’s 5th pre-salt bid round.

While ExxonMobil will be the operator of the Tita exploration block with a stake of 64%, Qatar Petroleum will hold the remaining 36% stake.

The Tita exploration block, which is spread across over 71,500 net acres, expands the portfolio of ExxonMobil in Brazil to around 2.3 million net acres.

Commenting on the Tita exploration block award, Steve Greenlee – president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, said:  “With the acquisition of this block, we continue to increase our holdings in Brazil’s pre-salt basins, which are high-quality opportunities that enhance ExxonMobil’s global portfolio.

“These resources will benefit from ExxonMobil’s considerable capabilities, which we will employ as we explore and develop them with our co-venturers and the government.”

ExxonMobil has outlined its plans for the remainder of 2018 and into 2019 to gather 3-D seismic coverage and continue to work on regulatory requirements to carry out exploration drilling in the offshore Brazilian field by 2020.

For Qatar Petroleum, the Tita exploration block is its third winning bid in Brazil. In October 2017, the company won the exploration rights in the Alto de Cabo Frio-Oeste block located in the Santos basin in partnership with China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

In March 2018, Qatar Petroleum won four blocks in Brazil – two of them with Petrobras and ExxonMobil in the Campos Basin and the other two with ExxonMobil in the Santos basin.

Saad Sheirda al-Kaabi – president and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, commenting on the Tita exploration block award, said: “This is QP’s third success in Brazil in less than a year, which expands of our footprint in one of the most prospective basins in the world.

“This winning bid constitutes another milestone on the road of achieving our strategy of creating a large scale, value-adding international portfolio, while pursuing Latin America as an important core area for QP.”

For the Tita exploration block, the relevant legal agreements such as the concession agreements and others are anticipated to be signed by the Brazilian authorities and the consortium members by the end of 2018.

  Brazil, Brazilian 5th pre-salt bid round, ExxonMobil, Oil and gas industry news, Oil and gas news, Qatar Petroleum, Saad Sheirda al-Kaabi, Steve Greenlee, Tita exploration block