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The Brazilian government has published some additional terms regarding the next auction oil blocks under the production sharing regime, scheduled to be held later in 2019. Expected to sell-off a whole oil-producing zone known as the transfer-of-rights (TOR), it will be subject to additional detailed rules and the future winning bidders will have to compensate the state-held oil and gas company Petrobras for exploratory and infrastructure work it has performed in the zone. The government did not provide a monetary estimation so far and reported that compensatory values would have to be agreed between the winning companies and Petrobras at an assumed oil price of US$72/bbl. As for gas prices for the purposes of calculating the compensation, they will be set at US$5/MBtu.

The TOR zone was established in 2010 by the Brazilian government and Petrobras relating to a huge share offering that would have diluted the government’s stake in the company. To maintain its control in the company, the government sold its rights to explore 5 Gbl in the area for a total consideration of BRL74.8bn (approx. US$42.5bn) at the time and bought additional shares in the company with the funds. As of 2019, the country’s oil regulator estimates that there are about 17 Gbl of recoverable oil in the area and the government is seeking to auction rights for the exploration of the excess oil while the two sides need to resolve the dispute. The intention is that companies bidding for the excess oil in the area would have to compensate Petrobras for investments the company already made in the blocks.

US-based oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum has submitted a superior proposal to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for US$76 per share, which represents a premium of approximately 20% to the value of Anadarko’s pending transaction with the global oil and gas company Chevron.

EDP Renewables (EDPR), the renewable subsidiary of the Portuguese electricity company Energias de Portugal (EDP), has agreed to sell its remaining shareholdings in a 997MW portfolio of European onshore wind parks to unnamed institutional advisors for a total consideration of about €800m.

The US Presidential administration has decided it will not renew waivers from US sanctions for the remaining buyers of Iranian crude oil, i.e. Japan, South Korea, Turkey, China and India. This means that these countries would no longer be exempt from US sanctions if they continued to import oil from Iran after the beginning of May 2019.

Swiss-based asset manager Partners Group will purchase CapeOmega from HitecVision for a total consideration of €1.2bn (US$1.35bn). CapeOmega is a partner in the Norwegian pipeline operator Gassled and the agreement will reduce HitecVision’s stake in Gassled to 25.6% from the previous 41.9%.

The Indiana regulator IURC (Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission) has rejected CenterPoint Energy’s plans to build a 850-MW natural gas-fired power plant to replace two coal-burning units at its A.B. Brown coal-fired power plant, saying the potential financial risk to ratepayers is too high at times of rapid changes in the US power generation sector.

The Nigerian government has outlined plans to raise US$700m to be invested in the 4.3 tcf (120 bcm) Assa North/Ohaji South (ANOH) gas project in Imo State, Nigeria, which will be linked with a new 1,200 MW gas-fired power plant.