In an arbitration award released to the parties in early February, the ANP was partially successful and was able to reaffirm the validity of the fortuitous event and force majeure clauses provided for in the concession contract. In the arbitration, the concessionaires Petra Energia and Bayar Empreendimentos e Participações Ltda. they asked, among other things, for the refund of signature bonuses paid for blocks of the 12th Bidding Round, held in 2013, which was denied in the sentence.

The 12th Round attracted the attention of civil society and public entities for explaining, for the first time, the possibility of using the hydraulic fracturing technique to extract hydrocarbons from unconventional reservoirs.

After the round, there was the filing of six Public Civil Actions by the Federal Public Ministry, in which they sought to ban the use of hydraulic billing and the cancellation of the event. In the specific case of the Petra and Bayar concessionaires, the contract was affected by court decisions handed down in Public Civil Action No. .

During the validity of the prohibitive decisions, the concessionaires administratively requested the termination of the contract, with exemption from contractual obligations, restitution of signature bonuses and reimbursement of expenses with the contracting of financial guarantees. As with other contracts of the 12th Round, the ANP proposed the formalization of a consensual termination, with the exoneration of contractual obligations and the release of financial guarantees, provided that the companies agreed to waive the receipt of any amounts. The disagreement over the restitution and reimbursement of amounts prevented the consensual termination of the contract, so that the controversy was referred to arbitration.

When instituting the arbitration, one of the allegations made by the companies was that, as the court decision prevented them from carrying out the activities in the purchased blocks, they would be entitled to the refund of the amounts paid. This claim was refuted by the ANP, based on contractual clauses that prevent the refund or reimbursement of amounts in cases of “acts of God, force majeure or similar causes”. The ANP's view was sanctioned by the arbitration award, which recognized, among other issues, that the ANP cannot be held responsible for the behavior of MPF bodies and for the decisions issued by the Judiciary, which would fall under the concept of "fact of the prince" ( state act that, coming from another governmental sphere, impacts the fulfillment of the contract). Thus, the arbitrators recognized the applicability of contractual clauses on acts of God, force majeure or similar causes for the case in question.

On the other hand, the arbitrators agreed to the request for cancellation of credits charged by the ANP. They understood that the judicial decisions, while in force, completely prohibited the execution of the activities that, by the contract, the companies were supposed to do. Thus, they concluded that the concessionaires were not at fault in the termination and that the ANP will not be able to register credits in active debt referring to this concession agreement.

Arbitration is a method of conflict resolution, in which the parties define that a person or a private entity will resolve the dispute presented by the parties, without the participation of the Judiciary. This instrument is present in the concession contracts for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, signed between the ANP and the companies that won the bidding rounds. Pursuant to this clause, some conflicts and disagreements between the Agency and the concessionaire will be resolved through arbitration, rather than through legal action.