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Brazilian Minister of Energy Bento Albuquerque, at the Brazilian government's auction of offshore oilfields in Rio de Janeiro, November 6, 2019. REUTERS / Pilar Olivares

" No frustration " officially in Brazil after a long-awaited oil auction on Wednesday. Only two blocks out of four have been sold and very few foreign investors have responded.

With our correspondent in Sao Paulo, Martin Bernard

The Brazilian authorities used many superlatives to evoke " the biggest auction in the world " including one of the largest oil blocks in the pre-salt basin, in ultra-deep waters off Rio.

But ultimately, very few foreign investors responded. Only two Chinese companies, CNOOC and CNODC, have joined Brazil's Petrobras to exploit the largest block of oil, and only 5% each in the winning consortium.

Petrobras alone won the right to continue operating a second block.And, two other blocks have found no buyer, while a dozen foreign oil companies have chosen not to take part in these auctions.

The Brazilian government is consoling itself by collecting operating rights - a kind of tolls - in the order of $ 17.5 million. But if the bids had been successful, he could have won $ 9 billion more.

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