Petrobras Acquires Exploratory Block in Nigeria

Petrobras announces that it acquired in an international auction held by the Nigerian government an exploratory block " the OPL 315", as an operator in deep Nigerian waters. The Company made the winning bid with an offer of US$ 180 million, with 45% participation, in partnership with Statoil (45%), from Norway, and the Nigerian Ask Petroleum System (10%), in compliance with the auction requirements.

The OPL 315 block, with an area of 1,030 squared meters, is situated in the northwest of the Niger River Delta basin, in waters between 1000 and 2000 meters deep. It is geographically close to the city of Lagos, in a geological environment similar to the one of the giant oil-bearing fields of Bonga and Erha, as well as the Abo field, which is already in production. In the auction, known as the Nigeria 2005 Bid Round, there were about 65 blocks on offer in several of the sedimentary basins of the country.

Petrobras already participates in oil exploration in Nigeria, positioned in a focused area in the deep-water sector, where tit has participation in blocks OPL 216, 246 and 324, the latter also as an operator. In the OPL 216 and 246 blocks, the company took part in the discovery of the giant oil fields of Akpo and Agbami, which as of 2008 should enter into production, making Petrobras Nigeria one of the largest producers of the Petrobras Group outside Brazil.