Brazil's oil regulator ANP suggested that the government sell 10 billion barrels of recoverable petroleum at an auction of exploration and production rights in November, ANP chief Magda Chambriard told reporters on Monday.
If approved, the amount of reserves offered would be enough to provide all oil needs in the United States, the world's largest consumer, for 18 months at 2011 levels, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
The November auction is scheduled to be the first auction in Brazil using production-sharing contracts. Under the rules, the winner will be the group offering the biggest share of future production to the government to sell on its own account.
The auction will be limited to the Subsalt Polygon, an area off the coast of Rio de Janeiro that makes up nearly all of the Campos and Santos Basins, where 80 per cent of Brazil's oil is already produced.
Brazil's state-controlled oil company will have to have a 30-per-cent stake in each winning group and lead the project as operator.