Petrobras and Equinor acquire most blocks in Brazil's pre-salt auction

By Fabio Teixeira and Marta Nogueira RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras and Norway's Equinor were the big winners in an auction for blocks in Brazil's pre-salt area, acquiring one block each and partnering up for a third one, oil regulator ANP made public on Wednesday. Australia's Karoon Energy also acquired one block, and China's CNOOC and Sinopec formed a consortium to acquire another.  In this auction the signing bonus is fixed and the winning bids were those with the highest percentage of oil to be ceded to the Brazilian government. That oil will be auctioned off back to oil firms, generating revenue for Brazil's government. While 15 firms signed up to participate in the auction, only eight made offers, with oil majors such as Shell and BP making no offers. Shell's decision to stay out of this auction reflected a "disciplined approach" to capital allocation, the firm said in a statement moments after the auction ended. Two of the seven blocks put up for bids received no offers.    (Reporting by Fabio Teixeira and Marta Nogueira; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

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