The National Monetary Council (CMN) and the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) enabled the use of foreign currency in domestic bank accounts titled to E&P companies for the purpose of carrying out the decommissioning of installations at conceded oil and natural gas fields.
The National Monetary Council (CMN), through Resolution n.º 4.980/2022, and the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), through Resolution n.º 183/2022, enabled the opening and use of Brazilian bank accounts titled to E&P companies, in foreign currency, for the sole purpose of carrying out the decommissioning of installations at conceded oil and natural gas fields, i.e., the contract-bound discontinuation of production facilities and environmental recomposition by the end of a field’s economic lifecycle, after which the production is definitively terminated.
The first article of the CMN resolution enabled the opening and use of such accounts by banks authorized to operate in the foreign exchange market, destined exclusively for the deposit of financial guarantees related to decommissioning obligations, under the appropriate regulation from the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP). As reported in the 28th edition of the Regulatory Report, ANP Resolution n.º 854/2021 provides the conditions for the decommission of installations and provision of financial guarantees.
The second article of the CMN resolution established limitations to transactions in such accounts, while the third article authorized the BCB to adopt the necessary regulatory measures to implement the provisions of the CMN resolution. In that sense, the aforementioned BCB resolution amended BCB Circular n.º 3.691/2013 (foreign exchange market procedures). Additional conditions were enacted.
