Massive resource deep beneath the Atlantic stays 40% state-owned, with 60% going to Shell, Total and Chinese partners
Protesters throw rocks
from behind a shield outside the Libra oilfield auction in Rio de
Janeiro. Photograph: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty
The auction for Libra, a prime deepwater oilfield off the Rio coast which could hold up to 12bn barrels of reserves, has divided opinion in Brazil.
The auction was staged in Barra de Tijuca, an upmarket beachside suburb popular with actors and footballers, and 1,100 members of the security forces were brought in for the event, which eventually took place an hour late.
The auction was won by the only bidder – a consortium of international and state oil companies, including Shell (which got 20%), France's Total (20%) and Chinese state companies CNPC and CNOOC (10% each). They will pay a total of R15bn (£4.27bn) in signing fee alone for the vast field.
Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petrobras will drill the field and keeps ownership of 40%. The country's oil industry has expressed concern it is far too much of a commitment for a company that is already overstretched and heavily in debt.
But many Brazilians feel the country is selling off national riches. "I don't feel secure about it," said Wendell Santana, 40, a taxi driver. "It should have been debated more by the population."
In recent years Brazil has discovered billions of barrels of oil thousands of metres beneath the Atlantic Ocean bed in so-called "subsalt" fields – enough to make the country one of the top half a dozen producers in the world by 2020.
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Clashes ahead of Brazil's Libra oil exploration auction
The BBC's Wyre Davies reports as attempts are made to disperse protesters
Brazilian
security forces and protesters have clashed in Barra da Tijuca, near
Rio de Janeiro, where the Brazilian government is auctioning off
exploration rights for a huge oilfield on Monday.
Several protesters have been injured.
President Dilma Rousseff had ordered tight security after violent demonstrations in Rio last week.
With only eight months to go before the World Cup, for the government to order the army onto the streets of Barra de Tijuca (the coastal strip to the west of Rio) is not a decision that will have been taken lightly. They will provide images that Brazilian authorities would frankly rather the world did not see at such a critical moment.”
Local media said a small number
of protesters tried to set a car alight while others tried to block cars
carrying officials from Brazil's Mining and Energy Ministry from
getting to the hotel where the auction is taking place.
"There were bizarre scenes. Riot police firing tear gas and
stun grenades, not just against protesters, but also on to the beach,
with hundreds of tourists and sun worshippers looking on incredulously,"
the BBC's Wyre Davies reported from Rio de Janeiro.Among the protesters are members of various unions representing oil workers, who have been on strike since Thursday at more than 40 oil platforms and refineries.
'Sell-out' The unions accuse the government of "selling off" Brazil's riches.
Eleven international oil companies are said to be interested in the Libra oilfield, and nine of them have so far reportedly paid the required registration fee.
The Libra offshore oilfield is located at a depth of some 5,000m (16,500ft), below a thick layer of salt sediments, which makes its exploration extremely challenging.
The site of the Libra auction is well guarded
Protesters set fire to rubbish bins and overturned the car of a local broadcaster
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