Brownstone Ventues Inc is pleased to announce that together with BrazAlta Resources Corp. ("BrazAlta"), Petro Latina do Brasil Exploraçao e Produçao de Petroleo e Gas Natural Ltda. ("PetroLatina") and W.Washington Empreendimentos E Participaçoes Ltda. ("W.Washington") that the Agência Nacional do Petroleo, Gas Natural e Biocombustiveis ("ANP"), Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, has awarded a consortium led by W.Washington, which is Brownstone's, BrazAlta's, and PetroLatina's joint venture partner, 1 onshore block known as REC-T-170, covering approximately 28 square kilometres in the Recôncavo area of North Eastern Brazil. The gross bonus paid and work commitment made for the block was R$35,000 ($19,570) and 1,000 work units. The work units can be satisfied by drilling one well on the block or by paying R$3,000 ($1,677) per unit to the ANP. This is an exploration block and once the concession contract is signed with the ANP, the first exploration period is for a total of three years.
Brownstone also wishes to announce that it has entered into a consortium agreement (the "Round 9 Agreement") pursuant to which BrazAlta, W.Washington, PetroLatina, and Brownstone will co-operate on the ownership and development of Block REC-T-170 awarded in the recent Round 9 land auctions. Per the terms of the Round 9 Agreement, the parties have agreed to allocate the beneficial ownership of the Round 9 concessions obtained by the parties through a consortium structure with the following working interests: 56.25% to BrazAlta and W.Washington, 25% to PetroLatina and 18.75% to Brownstone.
Brazil's Round 9 auction of oil and gas exploration concessions saw record bidding activity. Out of 271 concessions on offer, 117 found buyers, bringing over 2.1 billion Brazilian Reais ($1.2 billion) in premiums to the Brazilian government, above the record 1.0 billion Brazilian Reais ($0.6 billion) paid during the seventh annual round two years ago. In the Recôncavo basin there were 32 blocks offered and 29 awarded with total bonuses of R$54,759,695 ($30,617,666) and additional work commitments made of 49,600 work units. Based on R$3,000 per work unit, the total value for the entire Recôncavo basin was R$203,559,700 ($113,815,879) for an average of R$7,019,300 ($3,924,685) per block. In the Esp?rito Santo basin, there were 10 blocks offered and 8 awarded with total bonuses of R$4,035,670 ($2,256,455) and additional work commitments of 11,050 work units. Based on R$3,000 per work units the total value for the entire Esp?rito Santo basin was R$37,185,670 ($20,791,540) for an average of R$4,648,209 ($2,598,943) per block.