The Pre-Salt Polygon1 is amongst the most important oil and natural gas discoveries of the last few years in Brazil and globally. In July 2017, its production represented 48.2 per cent of total Brazilian output.2 Due to the geological structure of the area, and the presence of fields already granted under concession agreements and onerous assignment agreements, this will probably result in the signing of many unitization agreements (UAs) in the next few years. The Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP) is about to regulate ‘procedures and guidelines for the unitization agreement negotiation', according to Article 34 of the Pre-salt Law. In compliance with this article, ANP published Resolution No 25 of 2013 on 9 July 2013, which regulates the unitization procedure in Brazil, covering onshore and offshore E&P operations. These rules provided solutions to issues that the revoked Article 27 of Petroleum Law, the various E&P concession agreements and other ANP Resolutions could not solve, although other issues, especially relating to open areas located in the Pre-salt Polygon, remain. The National Energy Policy Council (CNPE) has published Resolution No 8 of 2016, establishing unitization guidelines for the process of involving open areas. CNPE has also launched Resolution No 7 of 2017, which provides guidelines on local content in unitization areas. Following the new CNPE policies, ANP amended its Resolution No 25 of 2013, through Resolution No 698 of 2017. This article gives a brief update of the Brazilian regulatory framework for E&P activities and discusses the unitization process, highlighting the main changes and observing what will be important to consider in all the forthcoming unitization activity.

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为什么在处理巴西盐下多边形时单元化过程是一个重要问题

Pre-Salt Polygon1 是过去几年巴西和全球最重要的石油和天然气发现之一。2017 年 7 月，其产量占巴西总产量的 48.2%。2 由于该地区的地质结构，以及根据特许协议和繁重的转让协议已经授予的油田，这可能会导致签署许多单元化协议。未来几年的协议（UA）。根据《盐下法》第 34 条，巴西国家石油局 (ANP) 即将规范“统一协议谈判的程序和指南”。根据本文，ANP 于 2013 年 7 月 9 日发布了 2013 年第 25 号决议，该决议规范了巴西的单元化程序，涵盖陆上和海上 E&P 作业。这些规则为被撤销的石油法第 27 条、各种勘探开发特许权协议和其他 ANP 决议无法解决的问题提供了解决方案，尽管其他问题，特别是与位于盐下多边形内的开放区域有关的问题仍然存在。国家能源政策委员会 (CNPE) 发布了 2016 年第 8 号决议，为涉及开放区域的过程制定了统一指南。CNPE 还发布了 2017 年第 7 号决议，该决议提供了关于单元化区域本地内容的指南。根据新的 CNPE 政策，ANP 通过 2017 年第 698 号决议修订了其 2013 年第 25 号决议。本文简要更新了巴西勘探与生产活动的监管框架，并讨论了联合过程，