Chevron Mulling Participation in Brazil's March Oil Auction

Chevron Corp is considering taking part in an oil auction next month in Brazil as part of a consortium of companies, Brazilian oil regulator ANP said on Tuesday on its website.

The auction, slated for March 29, will offer 70 blocks in the offshore Ceará, Potiguar, Sergipe-Alagoas, Campos and Santos basins and on-shore basins of Parnaíba and Paraná.

The deadline to register for the auction is Wednesday. Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chevron did not bid in an October auction that opened Brazil's offshore pre-salt play to foreign operators and was dominated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

However, Chevron is seeking to ramp up its production in Brazil.

Reuters reported in December that Chevron had reached preliminary agreement with oil services company Schlumberger NV to drill six wells in a Brazilian offshore field in a bid to lift its output there after a 2011 oil spill that cut production.


(Reporting by Marta Nogueira and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)