The ANP held, last Friday (11/27), a public hearing on the resolution that will regulate procedures for the presentation of guarantees and instruments that ensure the decommissioning of production facilities in oil and natural gas fields. This regulation, which has been long awaited by the market, gained strength in the scope of Petrobras' divestment plan and the ANP assignment process for greater legal security and transparency for investors.

“This topic is of great relevance for the deupstream segment of the Brazilian oil and natural gas industry. Although already provided for in the contracts, the presentation of financial guarantees for decommissioning of facilities became more urgent with the approach of the end of Round Zero contracts and the execution of Petrobras divestment projects, which transfers the rights and obligations of a expressive number of contracts for smaller companies ”, stated the director of ANP Symone Araújo at the opening of the hearing.

The oil and gas fields, when they reach the end of their productive life (that is, when production is no longer sufficient to sustain operating costs), need to be decommissioned, according to the contractual obligation. Decommissioning is the set of activities associated with the permanent interruption of the operation of the facilities, the permanent abandonment and destruction of wells, the removal of facilities, the proper disposal of materials, waste and tailings, the environmental recovery of the area and the preservation of the conditions of local navigation security.

These activities, which require expenditures, occur exactly at the moment when the field no longer presents financial return. For this reason, the contracts for exploration and production of oil and natural gas contain clauses determining both the obligation to conduct the abandonment and the deactivation of the installations in accordance with the applicable legislation and to present financial guarantees to ensure the necessary resources for this purpose.

Despite the contracts already bringing these obligations, the ANP, seeking to provide greater legal certainty and transparency, began to debate the issue in 2015 and, as of 2018, within the scope of Public Taking of Contributions No. 8/2018, discussions were intensified through working groups, with interested parties, making it possible to consolidate the types of guarantees, the methodology for calculating the cost of decommissioning and the progressive contribution model with the objective of ensuring decommissioning to the State.

Additionally, the ANP reinforced the discussions with the market and placed a draft resolution on prior consultation in March 2020. From the application of the procedures set out in the draft to specific cases, the ANP made improvements to the proposal, resulting in the draft that passed by public consultation and was the subject of today's hearing.

The draft resolution contains nine chapters, which define: object to be regulated and the definitions used; procedures and communications; the total amount to be guaranteed; the progressive contribution model (MAP); the modalities of guarantees; the instrument in which decommissioning can be ensured by the contractor itself; the relationship between guarantee and decommissioning and the assignment of contracts; the execution of guarantees and, finally, the final and transitional provisions.

In the public consultation, which was available for 60 days, more than 320 contributions were received. They will be evaluated by the technical area of the ANP, together with the suggestions received at the hearing, to change or not the original draft. The consolidated text will then undergo legal analysis by the Federal Attorney's Office at the ANP and by approval by the Agency's collegiate board, before its publication.