PETALING JAYA: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will be strengthening its presence in Brazil after winning a bid for a field in the Santos Basin through its subsidiary.
Bernama reported that Petronas Petroleo Brasil Ltda (PPBL), a subsidiary of the national oil and gas company, and its consortium partners have won the Sepia field, located in the Santos Basin, during Brazil’s second transfer of rights surplus volume bidding round held in Rio de Janeiro.
Following this successful bid, Petronas will hold a 21% interest alongside operator Petrobras (30%), TotalEnergies (28%), and QatarEnergy (21%), the national news agency reported.
The results were publicly announced by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in a live broadcast, it added.
Petronas is extremely encouraged with the outcome of the bid round which marks our entry into the Santos Basin, Bernama quoted Petronas president and group chief executive officer Datuk Tengku Muhammad Taufik pic) as saying.
“This signals our commitment to strengthen our ventures in Brazil which offers the world’s most prolific basins. Establishing our presence in the Americas is in line with our global growth strategy.
“Even as we work closely with our partners, together with the support of the host government, Petronas will remain focused on pursuing value creation while continuing our decarbonising efforts in order to sustainably develop and monetise the Sepia field,” Muhammad Taufik said in a statement.
Sepia is a pre-salt oil field in the Santos Basin, located in water depths about 2,000m off the coast of Rio de Janerio and has started its production in August 2021 through a dedicated 180,000-barrel per day floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO).
The second FPSO is expected to be sanctioned soon which would increase the overall production capacity of the field.
PPBL currently has a participating interest in the Tartaruga Verde or the BM-C-36 concession and Module III of the Espadarte or the Espadarte Concession deepwater fields located in the Campos Basin, offshore Brazil.
It also holds participating interests in three other deepwater exploration blocks in the Campos Basin, which were awarded during Brazil’s concession exploration bid round 16 in 2019.
Source: The Star