By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) has issued Portaria No. 884/2025, a sweeping overhaul of the compensation model for Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A. (PPSA), the state-owned company that manages production-sharing contracts and commercializes the Union’s share of oil and natural gas in the pre-salt polygon. The regulation, which takes effect December 1, implements the remuneration architecture established under Law No. 15,075/2024 and replaces the current contract between the federal government and PPSA. The new rule aligns the company’s financial structure with an expected surge in production, more complex unitization processes and a new generation of gas auctions.
A Structural Shift From the Previous Model
The portaria reorganizes PPSA’s compensation around a mix of fixed and variable components. Instead of a broad, loosely segmented model, payments will now reflect the phase of each contract (exploration or production), the area of the blocks, the number of producing modules and—crucially—the volume of oil and gas commercialized on behalf of the Union.
For oil, PPSA will receive between R$8.78/m³ and R$0.55/m³ depending on volume bands; for natural gas, the remuneration ranges from R$31,023.88 per million m³ for smaller batches to R$1,938.99 per million m³ for volumes above 4 million m³. All parameters will be updated annually using the IGP-DI inflation index.
Granular Rules, Auction Payments and Stronger Governance
The changes represent a break with the previous system, which relied on broader, less detailed criteria. Compensation is now granular, formula-based and tied directly to PPSA’s operational workload. The rule introduces standardized values for activities previously treated only generically, including management of unitization agreements and Union-led oil and gas auctions, with unit payments reaching R$25 million per event. It also sets explicit rules for long-term natural gas auctions—including the 2025 event, whose remuneration will be disbursed in two tranches.
The regulation embeds a significantly stronger governance framework. PPSA must maintain separate cost centers per contract, provide mandatory documentation for each transaction, submit monthly remuneration reports and undergo annual independent audits. Financial flows are tightly controlled, and every step of the commercialization chain must be documented and reported.
Government Signals Strategic Alignment With Pre-Salt Growth
The government framed the update as essential to prepare PPSA for the next decade. “PPSA plays a decisive role in ensuring the Union maximizes the value of the pre-salt,” said Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira. “With clear and modern rules aligned with future challenges, the MME is giving the company the structure it needs to grow with governance, transparency and technical capacity.”
Portaria 884 was developed throughout 2025 in coordination with the Civil House and the Ministry of Management and Innovation. It is designed to reflect the increasing complexity of the production-sharing regime, with more producing modules, more unitization agreements and a wider portfolio of oil and gas auctions.
A New Architecture for Oil and Gas Commercialization
The portaria also redesigns the financial flow of commercialization. All expenses—taxes, operational costs and PPSA’s own remuneration—must be deducted from revenue in a dedicated bank account operated exclusively for Union-related transactions. Only after these deductions will net proceeds be transferred to the National Treasury’s Single Account.
PPSA must provide monthly extracts, invoices, GRUs, 12-month expense histories and detailed contract-level documentation, allowing the MME to monitor each stage of the process. For upcoming expenses, the company must submit quarterly forecasts, giving the government visibility to calibrate cash flows and safeguard federal revenue.
Preparing PPSA for a New Pre-Salt Era
For Lula govern the update is both technical and strategic. With pre-salt production set to accelerate sharply in the coming years—and with new auctions, AIPs and production modules coming online—the PPSA faces a surge in volume and complexity. The new compensation architecture provides predictability, scalability and transparency, reinforcing oversight over one of the country’s most significant revenue streams.
Published in the Official Gazette, the rule takes effect immediately, and the updated remuneration contract becomes active on December 1—marking the start of a regulatory chapter designed to support PPSA as Brazil’s pre-salt consolidates itself as the core of the nation’s energy strategy.