Petrobras plans to invest up to US$130mn to drill wells in equatorial margin

Petrobras will invest between 579mn reais and 687mn reais (US$130mn) in the drilling of two exploration wells in Brazil’s geologically praised equatorial margin. 

The national oil company will drill the wells in blocks POT-M-762 and BM-BAR-1 or POT-M-952, in the Potiguar and Barreirinhas basins, oil and gas watchdog ANP said in a press release. 

The drilling plan is part of a commitment with ANP as compensation for the cancellation of a series of concession contracts in other basins that had been suspended due to environmental licensing delays.

Eight contracts encompassing 15 blocks were in such a condition: BM-J-4 (blocks J-M-115, J-M-165, J-M-3, J-N-5 and J-M-63 ) and BM-J-5 (J-M-59 and J-M-61), in the Jequitinhonha basin; BM-CAL-9 (CAL-M-188), BM-CAL-10 (CAL-M-3, CAL-M-58 and CAL-M-60), BM-CAL-11 (CAL-M-248) and BM-CAL-12 (CAL-M-372), in Camamu-Almada; and BM-PEPB-1 (block PEPB-M-783) and BM-PEPB-3 (block PEPB-M-839), in Pernambuco-Paraíba. 

All are operated by Petrobras with 100% participation, except for the BM-CAL-12, BM-PEPB-1, and BM-PEPB-3 contracts, in which other companies participate.

These contracts have a value of approximately 475mn reais in financial guarantees for compliance with the PEM minimum exploration program. 

Petrobras' partners opted not to participate in the agreement and they will pay their proportional amount of 35mn reais to the federal government in cash. The remaining 440mn reais will be used for drilling the two new wells in the equatorial margin. 

Petrobras expects to invest 50% of its US$6bn exploration capex for 2023-27 in the equatorial margin. 

The NOC plans to drill 16 wells in the region in the five-year period, the first of them in the Foz do Amazonas basin as soon as environmental regulator Ibama issues the drilling license. 

Until mid-September, Petrobras had made two other drilling license requests for equatorial margin projects, one for drilling two wells in the Pará-Maranhão basin (BM-PAMA-3 and BM-PAMA-8 concessions) and another for up to three wells in the Barreirinhas basin (BM-BAR-1 concession).

Located off Brazil’s northern coast, the equatorial margin is regarded as a highly prospective area due to its geological similarities with the Guyana and Suriname basins and the west coast of Africa.