ExxonMobil in consortium with Qatar Petroleum (QP) has been awarded hydrocarbon rights for the Tita block offshore Brazil by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP).
Image: ExxonMobil has bagged rights for Tita block offshore Brazil alongside Qatar Petroleum. Photo: courtesy of Business Wire.
The Tita block, which has been won during Brazil’s 5th pre-salt bid round, will be operated by ExxonMobil with 64% stake while Qatar Petroleum will own the remaining stake of 36%.
The Brazilian offshore block, which spans over 71,500 net acres, takes ExxonMobil’s portfolio in the South American country to nearly 2.3 million net acres.
Qatar Petroleum too expands its presence in offshore Brazil through the Tita block which represents its third win in less than a year.
Qatar Petroleum president & CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said: “This winning bid constitutes another milestone on the road of achieving our strategy of creating a large scale, value-adding international portfolio, while pursuing Latin America as an important core area for Qatar Petroleum.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Brazilian authorities for promoting a transparent and efficient process, and our trusted partner ExxonMobil for their excellent collaboration on this opportunity.”
ExxonMobil said that it will continue collecting 3-D seismic coverage through the remainder of 2018 and into 2019 and also advance work on regulatory requirements to start exploration drilling in the Tita block by 2020.
ExxonMobil Exploration president Steve Greenlee said: “With the acquisition of this block, we continue to increase our holdings in Brazil’s pre-salt basins, which are high-quality opportunities that enhance ExxonMobil’s global portfolio.
“These resources will benefit from ExxonMobil’s considerable capabilities, which we will employ as we explore and develop them with our co-venturers and the government.”
The US oil and gas company is also engaged in the pre-salt Carcara field in the BM-S-8 block offshore Brazil with a stake of 36.5%. It said that development work is going on at the Carcara field, which is operated by Equinor, and estimated to hold recoverable resource of more than two billion barrels of oil.
Overall, ExxonMobil’s subsidiary ExxonMobil Exploração Brasil has stakes in a total of 26 offshore Brazilian blocks and is operator of 66% of its net acreage.