To: stevenallen who wrote (6904 ) 10/17/2005 11:27:05 AM From: Galirayo Respond to of 23958 Devon shines as Brazil E&P auction starts Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:11 AM ET RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Encouraged by its exploration success in Brazil, Devon Energy Corp. (DVN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) of the United States snapped up three new areas on Monday with state oil company Petrobras in a concessions auction. Devon and Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research) (PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) paid the biggest premium of 116 million reais ($50 million) for a Campos basin block in morning trade on the first day of the seventh annual auction of Brazilian oil and gas exploration and production licenses. Devon will be the operator in the concession to develop the C-M-471 block, with a 50 percent stake. The Devon-Petrobras consortium beat a group formed by Repsol-YPF (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) of Spain and Norway's Statoil, which offered 20 million reais. The Repsol-Statoil group, however, beat Devon-Petrobras to the C-M-539 block, for which it paid a premium of 30 million reais. Devon and Petrobras also paid 68 million reais for the C-M-473 block concession, to be operated by Devon, and the C-M-535, where Petrobras will be the operator and will have a majority stake of 65 percent. Out of 22 concessions offered in the morning, 13 were sold, with Petrobras buying heavily, as usual. Devon is preparing to start producing in Brazil in 2007 at its Polvo field. It is still looking for more oil next to the field after finding promising signs there. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq and all other quotes delayed by at least 15 minutes. Reuters does not endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider. yahoo.reuters.com