OREANDA-NEWS. A consortium comprised of Petrobras, Shell, Total, CNPC  and CNOOC became the winner of Brazil's offshore Libra oilfield in the first bidding round held by the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP). This is the first time for CNPC to win a deepwater project. The company holds 10% in the consortium, with Petrobras 40% as operator, Shell 20%, Total 20% and CNOOC 10%. A 35-year production sharing contract is expected to be signed in November this year.

The Libra block is located in Santos Basin ultra-deep waters in the pre-salt polygon, about 170km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Covering approximately 1,550km2 in water depths of around 2,000m, the block is one of the world's largest ultra-deep water accumulations.

The Brazilian regulator ANP estimates Libra's recoverable resources of between 8 to 12 billion barrels of oil and the total gross peak oil production could reach 1.4 million barrels per day. Oil production is expected to be started at Libra in five years after the contract is signed.?