Brazil's Petrobras disqualifies Excelerate Energy's bid on LNG lease

6/21/2021

Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Monday that it had disqualified U.S.-based Excelerate Energy LP's bid on a lease for an LNG terminal in northeastern Bahia state.

Petrobras, as the company is commonly known, said in a statement on its website that it had disqualified Excelerate for not complying with the rules of the tender to lease the LNG Regassification Terminal of Bahia (TR-BA). Petrobras did not give details on which rules were violated.

Excelerate, the only company to bid on the lease, offered to pay roughly 3 million reais ($597,729) per month for 30 months, or a total of 92.1 million reais. The LNG company has until June 28 to appeal the decision.

This is the second time Petrobras has attempted to sell the lease, having also disqualified the only bidder in the previous tender.

Excelerate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 5.0190 reais) (Reporting by Marta Nogueira; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)