Exxon's Brazil play
The US supermajor made a splash in Brazil's oil auction, snapping up deep-water acreage and signalling its interest in the upcoming pre-salt round
ExxonMobil's virtual absence from Brazil's prolific deep waters has long been a glaring gap in its portfolio. It took its first step to plug that gap last week, emerging as the biggest winner from last week's 14 th round oil auction. The American supermajor made its biggest splash in the Campos Basin, which was Brazil's dominant basin before the massive pre-salt finds in the nearby Santos Basin. It snapped up 100% stakes in two blocks in the Campos, including areas with unexplored pre-salt potential. It won another six blocks in the basin bidding alongside state-owned Petrobras, including blocks CM-346 and CM-411, which combined accounted for nearly 90% of the record 3.8bn reals ($1.2bn) in
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