Held on the 23th of August, as stated by the Official Gazette´s warning, the Public Hearing session to present and discuss offered acreage in Round 9. ANP´s General Director, Haroldo Lima, opened the session remembering the importance of the Agency´s continuous bid offerings as essential to preserve the country´s self-suffiency in oil and to achieve this goal as far as natural gas is concerned. Another point stressed was the massive increase in public revenues allowed by the new approach: In 1997, no more than 190 million reais were paid, against more than 16 billion reais in 2006, amid royalties and special tax participations.

In the sequence, the following presentations were made by ANP´s representatives (texts in Portuguese only):

»Public Hearing: objectives, rules and agenda, Sup. Durval Carvalho de Barros

»The importance of exploratory areas bidding rounds, Dir. Nelson Narciso

»Brasil Round 9´s offered areas, Sup. Magda Chambriard

»Brasil Round 9´s general aspects, Sup. Paulo Alexandre Silva

When the public debate was open, 12 questions and statements were presented. The transcription of this debate will be available in this page as soon as possible, along with complementary clarifications deemed necessary.

ANP invites all interested to keep sending contributions concerning this round´s aspects to the address brasil-round9@anp.gov.br, untill September, 10th .