Brazil's government postponed to November an auction to offer oil producers the rights to explore deep-water blocks Sepia and Atapu, in the Santos Basin, according to the new schedule announced by Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque on Tuesday.

The blocks at Brazil's most productive oil region known as the pre-salt received no bids when first tendered by the government at the so-called "transfer of rights" auction in 2019.

Plans to offer the reserves once again to producers have been postponed before, first from June 2021 to the third quarter this year, according to previous statements by the minister.