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“That could take more time and would mean be ignored, he commented.
upfront expenditure by the government,” he “Onshore ... we have a lot of places where
added. people have properties and stuff like that,” he
said. “So it becomes a bit more complicated,
Onshore acreage off the table because although the government owns sub-
He also indicated that Georgetown had decided surface rights ... if you give a block [nearby], a
not to offer any onshore acreage to IOCs if it man may have a coconut estate or something
chose the auction route. else there. People believe everything on their
Government officials have of late been talk- land belongs to them, but the laws of the coun-
ing up the potential of the Takutu basin, an try since colonial times said subsurface rights
onshore area where some oil has been found in belong to the state.”
exploration wells drilled decades ago. The basin Under these circumstances, the government
was one of the areas highlighted in a new invest- will have to determine whether it needs to pass
ment prospectus published earlier this year. additional laws or carry out a public educa-
Jagdeo said on April 29, though, that George- tion campaign so that citizens understand the
town needed more time to research the matter matter, he said. “It’s a minefield,” he remarked.
and determine how exploration work might “That is why we have to work through a bit more
affect local communities before it went ahead [cautiously]. We don’t want the offshore [devel-
with auctions. There are more complicated opment] to be delayed dealing with this more
questions in play onshore, and they should not complex onshore situation.” ™

BRAZIL
Petrobras signs PSCs for Atapu, Sépia

BRAZIL’S national oil company (NOC) Petro-
bras announced on April 27 that it had signed
production-sharing contracts (PSC) for Atapu
and Sépia, two of the four Santos basin sites
within the offshore Transfer of Rights (TOR)
area.
In a statement, Petrobras said it had signed
a PSC with subsidiaries of Shell (UK) and
TotalEnergies (France) for the Atapu oilfield.
This contract assigns a 25% stake in Atapu to
Shell and a 22.5% stake to TotalEnergies, it
reported.
Shell confirmed the signing of the PSC and
said in a separate statement that its subsidiary
Shell Brasil had paid the equivalent of $1.1bn
for its 25% stake in Atapu. It also noted that the
transaction would allow Shell Brasil to “start
receiving its additional share of oil from the
field.”
Meanwhile, Shell’s upstream director Zoe
Yujnovich hailed this development, describing
the new contract as “the latest proof point of
our commitment to further strengthening our
advantaged deepwater positions in Brazil.”
She also noted that the project would com- Atapu and Sépia are offshore oilfields in the Santos basin (Image: TotalEnergies)
plement the company’s emissions-reduction
plans, saying: “With a leading global deepwater TotalEnergies will take a 28% stake in Sépia,
portfolio, this stake in the Atapu field directly while Petronas and QatarEnergy will take 21%
supports our Powering Progress strategy to each. Petrobras will retain the other 30% and
deliver the stable, secure energy resources the serve as operator of the project.
world needs today while investing in the energy The state-owned Qatari company confirmed
of the future.” the signing of the PSC and said it hoped the deal
Petrobras also reported in its statement would help establish it as “one of the leading
that it had signed a PSC for the Sépia field with upstream players in Brazil, where it holds work-
affiliates of TotalEnergies, Petronas (Malaysia) ing interests in numerous exploration and pro-
and QatarEnergy. Under this contract, it said, duction assets.”

Week 18 05•May•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11