Author: Rafael Bortoloti

BW Energy completed the acquisition of the Golfinho and Camarupim clusters, both in Espirito Santo basin, from Petrobras and taking over ownership and operatorship of approximately 10.000 barrels
of daily oil production. The company owns 100% working interest (WI) in the Golfinho and Camarupim clusters and 65% WI in the BM-ES-23 block. The Company’s overall estimate is 38 million boe.
The transaction is financed through BW Energy’s existing liquidity and an oil pre-payment facility with USD 12.2 million paid at closing following an initial USD 3 million payment back in 2022. The agreement also includes up to USD 60 million in future contingent payments linked to oil price, well
operations and further successful development of the acquired assets.

Last week, Petrobras released the final and official results of its last AHTS TS tender from earlier this year. The opportunity which saw Posidonia Shipping’s candidate Atlantic Kingfisher as best qualified offer, had received an appeal from one of the other bidders claiming the vessel did not meet a few tender requirements. After an evaluation process by Petrobras, the Oil Major turned down the appeal and ruled in favour of Posidonia’s offer, issuing the definitive award to Atlantic Kingfisher. The vessel is currently located in Canada and has to be delivered to Petrobras until December 2023, under REB flag, as per tender conditions. To convert the vessel to Brazilian flag, Posidonia should most likely use tonnage from the two PSV hulls acquired earlier in 2023.

In the first half of 2023, the Brazilian government acquired an accumulated share of oil of 7.27 million barrels, coming from the production sharing regime. This volume is more than double of the same period last year, when it was 3.6 million barrels.

The result was improved by the production of the fields of Mero (5 million barrels), Búzios (1 million barrels) and Sapinhoá (490 thousand barrels), all in Santos Basin. Another highlight is that the FPSO Guanabara installed in Mero, achieved a record monthly production of a pre-salt platform: 179.000 boed, in February.

Shell has informed the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) of the detection of natural gas signals in well 1-SHEL-35A-RJS, in block C-M-659, Campos Basin. The well is in a water depth of 2.940 meters and was drilled by Maersk Developer.  

The block was acquired by Shell in October 2019, during the 16th Bidding Round, for R$714 million. The company is the main operator of the block with a 40% share in partnership with Chevron (35%) and QPI (25%).

The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) authorized the drilling of the well for up to six wells in the block, one firm and five contingent. It can also perform as many as four training tests in that area.

Petrobras has released a tender for chartering a FPSO to work on the Barracuda and Caratinga Fields Revitalization Project. The vessel will have the capacity to produce 100,000 boed and six million cubic meters of gas. Owners must submit their offers by March 18, 2024. According to Petrobras, the revitalization in Campos Basin, where Barracuda and Caratinga are located, is part of the largest project to recover mature assets in the world’s offshore industry.

Solstad Offshore secured two contract extensions for vessels Normand Pioneer and Normand Carioca. Normand Pioneer will continue to support subsea activities for PRIO, having been granted an extension of 18 months. While Normand Carioca, the only remaining PSV in Solstad’s fleet following the sale of its entire category to Tidewater, will be converted to a Well Stimulation Vessel (WSV) for Equinor, thus extending the current contract by four years firm. Normand Carioca has been working for Equinor ever since 2017 and this new agreement will see the vessel as a part of Equinor’s fleet for 10 years in a row, an impressive milestone. The shift in scopes of work is scheduled to take place during Q3 2023.