Statoil has completed the $2.5 billion worth acquisition and took over operatorship of a license BM-S-8 located in the Santos basin offshore Brazil.
Namely, the Norwegian and Brazilian oil giants, Statoil and Petrobras, have completed their transaction announced back in July , whereby Statoil has acquired Petrobras’ 66% operated interest of the BM-S-8 offshore license that contains a substantial part of the Carcará oil discovery.
On the completion of the transaction, Statoil has paid Petrobras $1.25 billion, half of the total consideration. The company said the remainder will be paid at the passage of certain future milestones, mainly relating to the future unitisation of Carcará.
Carcará was discovered in 2012, on the geological trend of the nearby Lula field and Libra area. Statoil estimated the recoverable volumes within the BM-S-8 license to be in the range of 700 to 1,300 million boe.
The license is in its final exploration phase with one remaining exploration commitment well to be drilled by 2018. Statoil is now the operator of the Block BM-S-8 with a 66% stake, in partnership with Petrogal Brasil S.A. (14%), Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção S.A. (10%), and Barra Energia do Brasil Petróleo e Gás LTDA. (10%).
The sale operation is part of Petrobras’ 2015-2016 Divestment Plan. Brazilian state-owned oil company is selling off some of its assets to gain cash to pay off massive debts. However, the company encountered problems when trying to sell its stake in Baúna and Tartaruga Verde offshore fields to the Australian energy company Karoon Gas as the Brazilian court blocked the sale process due to an alleged lack of tender procedure.
In other news, Statoil was hit by a fire incident late on Tuesday on one of the rigs working on the company’s Norwegian Sea field, Njord.
Offshore Energy Today Staff