A consortium of three oil and gas giants – Qatar’s QatarEnergy, France’s TotalEnergies, and Malaysia’s Petronas – have been awarded an offshore exploration block during the first cycle of Brazil’s open acreage under a production sharing regime bid held in Rio de Janeiro.
QatarEnergy disclosed on Monday that, together with TotalEnergies and Petronas, it has been awarded the Agua-Marinha Production Sharing Contract (PSC), under the first cycle permanent offer round, by Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP).
Covering an area of 1,300 square kilometres, the Agua-Marinha block is located in water depths of about 2,000 meters off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in the prolific Campos Basin. This acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2023.
Upon completion, Qatar’s state-owned oil and gas giant will hold a 20 per cent working interest in this block, alongside the block’s operator Petrobras (30 per cent), TotalEnergies (30 per cent) and Petronas Petroleo Brasil (20 per cent).
Commenting on this, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, remarked: “We are pleased to achieve this latest successful joint bid, which adds further highly prospective acreage to our upstream portfolio in Brazil, and particularly in the prolific Campos Basin.”
According to QatarEnergy, this acquisition further strengthens its role as one of the leading upstream players in Brazil, where it already holds working interests in two producing fields and numerous exploration blocks.
“I wish to take this opportunity to thank the ANP and the Brazilian authorities for this opportunity and for their ongoing support,” added Al-Kaabi.
Regarding QatarEnergies’ other recent activities, it is worth noting that the company disclosed a successful bid last month for Parcel 8 of the Orphan Basin, offshore the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada.
