Brazil to Hold Next Oil Rights Auction in 2015

Brazil will hold the 13th round of its oil rights auctions in the first half of next year, a senior mines and energy ministry official said on Monday.

Marco Antonio Martins, the undersecretary in charge of the oil industry at the ministry, said at an industry event in Rio de Janeiro that the auction will sell blocks under a concession system.

The areas for auction will be outside the so-called Subsalt Polygon, where oil is trapped beneath the seabed by a layer of salt, and where under Brazilian law exploration can only be done on production-sharing contracts with the Brazilian government.

(Reporting by Jeb Blount and Marta Nogueira; Writing by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)