The Brazilian oil company’s signature bonus to be paid for the Campos Basin deep-water block is about $350m
Image: Petrobras, BP bag rights for C-M-477 block in Campos Basin. Photo: courtesy of C Morrison from Pixabay.
Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in consortium with BP has bagged rights for an offshore block, called C-M-477, in the Campos Basin in Brazil during the 16th ANP Bidding Round.
The bidding was held by Brazilian oil regulator – National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).
Petrobras will be the operator of C-M-477 block with a stake of 70%, while BP, through its subsidiary BP Energy do Brasil, will hold the remaining 30% stake.
The company stated: “The operation in consortia with major companies is aligned with Petrobras’ strategic objective to strengthen partnerships, sharing risks, combining technical and technological skills and capturing synergies to leverage results.”
Petrobras said that its share of the signature bonus to be paid for the deep-water block is about BRY1.43bn ($350m).
The Brazilian national oil company said that apart from the signature bonus, the judgment criteria for awarding the Campos Basin block also looked into the minimum exploration programme (MEP) to be applied on the block, and the seismic extension to be used during the exploratory campaign.
Petrobras and BP are said to have identified huge geological potential in the Campos Basin block. The Brazilian state-owned company further said that exploratory blocks in the Campos Basin have been highly competitive in the ANP bidding rounds held in 2017 and 2018.
The company, in a statement, said: “As in the previous bidding rounds, Petrobras acted selectively in the auction held today, as a result of its strategic vision to recompose its exploratory portfolio, in which it seeks to ensure the sustainability of its future oil and gas production.”
Petrobras looking to sell stakes in 11 producing fields in Campos Basin
In August 2019, the company started the sale process for certain exploration and production assets in the shallow waters of Campos Basin. Included in these are its stakes across 11 producing fields that are jointly called Garoupa Cluster.
In July 2019, Petrobras signed two separate transactions to sell some other shallow water assets in the Campos Basin and also in the Santos Basin to Trident Energy and Karoon Energy for a total price of $1.5bn.