Brazil sold exploration rights to 19 oil and gas blocks near the mouth of the Amazon river Tuesday, at the start of an auction slammed by environmentalists months before the country is to host the COP30 climate summit.
Two consortiums -- one comprising Brazil's state-owned Petrobras and US giant ExxonMobil, the other US multinational Chevron and China's CNPC -- spent $153 million on the rights to 19 of 47 deepwater blocks on offer in an area considered vulnerable to environmental harm.
