Enauta expects to boost oil output from Brazilian field following term extension

Brazilian oil and gas company Enauta has been granted an extension of the concession agreement for a field located offshore Brazil, enabling it to put its development plan into motion in a bid to ramp up output from the field and increase hydrocarbon reserves.

Enauta revealed on Thursday that the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Fuel (ANP) approved its new development plan and the contractual extension of the Atlanta field ’s concession agreement for 11 years.

Thanks to this extension, the concession term, previously valid until 2033, was extended to 2044. The approval is subject to the activities plan proposed by Enauta. This plan foresees the entry of the Full Development System (FDS) , which was approved in February 2022. The startup is expected by mid-2024, originally with six wells , reaching ten wells in 2029 . This project has the capacity to produce 50,000 barrels of oil and process 140,000 barrels of water per day.

Commenting on the extension, Décio Oddone , Enauta’s CEO, remarked: “The approval of the new development plan and the contractual extension allow to substantially increase the volume of oil to be produced in the field, as 2P reserves may grow substantially.”

The Atlanta field’s Reserves Certification Report statement dated 31 December 2021, indicated 2P reserves of 105.6 million barrels, and the 2C contingent resources of 31.9 million barrels, which are subject to referred contractual extension.

According to Enauta, these volumes are candidates to be promoted to the reserves class, which will be the purpose of a new evaluation and certification, as an assessment by the company’s technical department indicates that the 2P reserves will increase by more than 35 per cent, subject to future independent certification.

Located in the Santos Basin, the Atlanta field is operated by Enauta Energia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enauta, which also has a 100 per cent interest in this asset. The field has been producing since 2018 through an Early Production System (EPS) – comprising three wells connected to the FPSO Petrojarl I .

As a reminder, Enauta signed agreements with Altera in January 2022 to extend the charter, operation, and maintenance of this FPSO for an additional duration of up to two years. During the same month, the firm entered into an agreement for the purchase of FPSO OSX-2 for the Definitive System (DS) of the Atlanta field, and this purchase deal was closed in February .

In addition, the company also inked a firm contract with Malaysia’s Yinson for the conversion of an existing production unit for the FPSO to be used for Atlanta’s Full Field Development System, under the same terms as specified within the Letter of Intent (LoI) from December 2021 .

In line with its strategy – disclosed in April 2021 – to find new partners for the development of the Atlanta field, Enauta confirmed it was engaged in talks with Australia’s Karoon Energy for the partial sale of its interest in the field.

The field’s output is currently limited and not at its full capacity as Enauta stopped production from one of the wells at the field earlier this week to carry out minor repairs in the production line.