Statoil Acquires Interest in Brazil's Santos Basin

Statoil and Petrobras have agreed that Statoil will acquire Petrobras' 66 percent operated interest of the BM-S-8 offshore license in Brazil's highly prolific Santos basin. The acquisition includes a substantial part of the Carcará oil discovery, one of the largest discoveries in the world in recent years. 

Carcará was discovered in 2012, on the geological trend of the nearby Lula field and Libra area. It is a world-class discovery of high-quality oil. It straddles both BM-S-8 and open acreage to the north, which is expected to be part of a license round in 2017. 

Statoil says it is well positioned for operatorship of a unitized Carcará field following this transaction and the license round will provide an opportunity to scale up the position in the field. Statoil estimates the recoverable volumes within the BM-S-8 license to be in the range of 700 to 1,300 million boe. 

In addition to the Carcará discovery, BM-S-8 holds exploration upside that may significantly increase its resource base. The license is in its final exploration phase with one remaining exploration commitment well to be drilled by 2018.

The Carcará field will significantly enhance Statoil’s international production volumes in the 2020s and beyond. 

The total consideration for the acquisition is $2.5 billion. Half of it will be paid upon closing of the transaction, with the remainder being paid when certain milestones have been met. These are partly related to the license award, but mainly to the future unitization of Carcará. The effective date for the transaction is July 1, 2016. 

Statoil and Petrobras are also in discussions regarding a long-term strategic cooperation. The focus will be in the Campos and Espírito Santo basins, as well as new cooperation within gas and technology projects in the Santos basin.  

Statoil has been in Brazil since 2001. This year marks five years of production at the Statoil-operated Peregrino field. Peregrino Phase II is due to commence production in 2020, and in the third quarter of 2016 Statoil expects to assume operatorship of licence BM-C-33 in the Campos basin which includes the Pão de Açúcar discovery. Statoil also has interests in eight licenses in the Espirito Santo basin, working in partnership with Petrobras, and expects to spud its first exploration wells during 2017. 

It has developed a strong local organization with nearly 90 percent of its workforce from Brazil, and its operations have so far created 1,000 direct jobs. The addition of BM-S-8 to Statoil's Brazil portfolio will help deliver profitable growth through greater operational flexibility and efficiencies, says the company.

Statoil assets offshore Brazil: