Majors Detail Offshore Brazil Block Awards
Brazil’s 16th bid round concluded with the award of 12 of the 36 offshore blocks offered, according to the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).
The bid round collected a record R$8.9 billion ($2.2 billion) in signature bonuses. In all, 11 companies from nine countries made offers, 10 of which acquired blocks.
Petrobras will operate block C-M-477 in the Campos basin, with partner BP Energy (30%).
Total will operate block C-M-541 in the Campos basin, with partners Petronas (20%) and Qatar Petroleum (40%). According to ANP, this block had the largest signature bonus ever offered, R$4,029,302,001 ($976,897,854.83).
Shell Brazil will operate blocks C-M-659 and C-M-713 in the Campos basin, with partners Qatar Petroleum (25%) and Chevron (35%).
ExxonMobil Brasil will operate block C-M-479 in the Campos basin.
Petronas will operate blocks C-M-661 and C-M-715 in the Campos basin.
Repsol will operate block C-M-795 in the Campos basin.
Repsol will also operate block C-M-825 in the Campos basin, with partner Chevron (40%).
Chevron will operate block C-M-845 in the Campos basin and block S-M-766 in the Santos basin, with partners Wintershall Dea (20%) and Repsol (40%).
BP Energy will operate block S-M-1500 in the Santos basin.
ANP expects contracts to be signed by Feb. 14, 2020.
2-----Equinor Awarded Permit Offshore Western Australia
Equinor has secured a new exploration permit in the Northern Carnarvon basin offshore Western Australia.
The company will operate WA-542-P with a 100% interest. The concession covers 4,815 sq km (1,859 sq mi), 100 km (62 mi) offshore, in water depths ranging from 80-350 m (262-1,148 ft).
It is also west of the Santos-operated Dorado oil discovery.
Paul McCafferty, Equinor’s senior vice president for international offshore exploration, said: “An interesting new liquids play has emerged in this part of Australia’s northwest shelf and we are looking forward to assessing the potential in our new permit.”
The work program includes geological and geophysical studies, reprocessing of seismic data, and acquisition of new 3D seismic.
Equinor has also been seeking permission to start exploration on its acreage in the Ceduna basin offshore South Australia.
3----Clontarf Eyes Ghana License Positions
Clontarf Energy is more optimistic about its license offshore Ghana following talks with the country’s new NPP government.
The administration is pro-development, Clontarf said in a statement, and is reviewing historic petroleum agreements, with a focus on early exploration, discoveries, and output.
During 2018 and 2019 the Ghanaian Ministry of Energy and the Ghanaian National Petroleum Commission have considered a re-application by Pan Andean Resources (owned 60% by Clontarf and 30% by another Irish company, Petrel Resources) for the Tano 2A license block acreage in the Tano basin.
This is part of a process that involves existing, pending, and dormant petroleum agreements, in addition to conducting a separate bid round, in line with Section 10 of the new Petroleum Exploration and Production Act, 2016 (Act 919) which requires enforcement of a transparency regime to better manage Ghana’s petroleum resources.
---- Norway Offshore License Round
Thirty-three oil companies submitted applications for Norway’s Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2019, according to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
The APA process is staged annually over mature or known areas on the Norwegian continental shelf. It includes large parts of all available exploration acreage.
According to the Ministry, this year’s response was in line with applications for the previous APA rounds.
Minister Kjell Børge Freiberg said: “Predictable and stable framework-conditions and an active licensing policy are two of the main pillars in the government’s petroleum policy. We have continued to expand the APA-area considerably based on professional advice.”
This year the predefined area was enlarged in both the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said that while interest in the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea remained steady, there had been a slight drop-off in applications for North Sea acreage, partly because of the high volume of awards in this region during the previous two years.
----CNOOC Set to Co-Fund Deepwater Well
FAR has approved Svenska Petroleum Exploration GB’s request for a farm-out to CNOOC offshore Guinea-Bissau.
Svenska plans to transfer 55.55% of its share of the Sinapa and Esperanca petroleum licenses to CNOOC and retain operatorship with a 23.03% interest. FAR holds the remaining 21.42% in each of the concessions.
Under the arrangement, the Chinese major will fund 55.55% of all expenditures incurred under the joint venture participation and joint operating agreements. Its participating interest will drop to 50% in each of the licenses in the event of a commercial discovery.
Completion of the transaction remains subject to approval from the government of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.