TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, Petronas Win Sépia Field Rights (Brazil)
Malaysian oil firm Petronas said Friday it had with its consortium partners won the rights to the Sépia field, located in the Santos Basin, during Brazil’s Second Transfer of Rights Surplus Volume Bidding Round held in Rio de Janeiro.
Sépia is a pre-salt oil field in the Santos Basin, located in water depths about 2,000 meters off the coast of Rio de Janerio. Production from the field started in August 2021 through a dedicated 180,000 bpd 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.
Following this successful bid, Petronas will hold a 21% interest alongside operator Petrobras (30%), TotalEnergies (28%) and QatarEnergy (21%). The results were publicly announced by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in a live broadcast.
Petronas President and Group CEO, Muhammad Taufik said: "Petronas is extremely encouraged with the outcome of the bid round which marks our entry into the Santos Basin. 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 decarbonizing efforts in order to sustainably develop and monetize the Sépia field.”
TotalEnergies secures Atapu, too
Credit: TotalEnergies
While securing a stake in the Sepia field, TotalEnergies also secured a stake in the Atapu field.
Atapu is a pre-salt oil field in the Santos Basin, located in water depths of about 2,000 meters. Production started in 2020 and has reached a plateau of 160,000 barrels per day with a first FPSO) A second FPSO is planned to be sanctioned, which would increase the overall oil production of the field to around 350,000 b/d.
TotalEnergies, with a 22.5% interest, alongside operator Petrobras (52.5%) and Shell (25%) are partners in the Atapu Production Sharing Contract.
"Production from both fields will contribute to increasing TotalEnergies’ production in Brazil from the effective date of the PSC planned by end of April 2022, with 30,000 boe/d in 2022 growing to 50,000 boe/d from 2023," Total said.
“With the successful bids on Atapu and Sépia, TotalEnergies further expands its footprint and production in the pre-salt Santos Basin, a key growth area for the Company. These are unique opportunities to access giant low-cost and low emissions oil reserves, in line with TotalEnergies' new strategy”, said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.
"These assets benefit from world-leading well productivities to keep costs well below 20 $/boe. They also leverage technological innovations to limit greenhouse gas emissions to well below 20 kg/boe.
"Growing our presence in Brazil will enable us to accelerate the restructuring of our oil portfolio towards low-cost and low emissions hydrocarbon resources that will contribute to transform TotalEnergies to a sustainable multi-energy company. Moreover, TotalEnergies, through its subsidiary Total Eren, pursues its growth in renewables in Brazil with already a capacity of 300 MW.”