Page 17 - LatAmOil Week 21 2020

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NEWS IN BRIEF
LatAmOil
UPSTREAM
Bahamas Petroleum Co.
signs rig contract for
Perseverance-1 well
Bahamas Petroleum Co. (BPC), the oil and gas exploration company with significant prospec- tive resources in licences in The Commonwealth of The Bahamas, has announced that, having postponed its Perseverance-1 drilling operation from H1 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has entered into a definitive contract with Stena Drilling for provision of a drilling rig as soon as Q4-2020. Consequent on the terms of this contract, the Company is able to provide an updated and significantly reduced cost estimate for its first exploration well in The Bahamas, along with a general update on expected timing and progress toward drilling.
Highlights: unconditional agreement with Stena Drilling for the provision of a state of the art, sixth generation drilling rig, including inte- grated supply of a Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) unit; firm window for commencement of drilling between 15 December 2020 and 1 Feb- ruary 2021, consistent with licence obligations as extended by the COVID-19 force majeure event; reduced estimated total cost of Perse- verance-1, down by approximately 15%, based on the contracted rig rate and rates for other contracted services and equipment, reflecting changes to the global operating environment; Perseverance-1 well targeting recoverable P50 oil resources 770mn barrels, with an upside of 1.44bn barrels. Reduced cost estimate creates scope for expanded formation evaluation work in the success case, without increasing previous estimated total capital requirement; optimal funding strategy and timing, including farm-out process, being reassessed accordingly.
Simon Potter, Chief Executive Officer of BPC, said: “In March 2020, we were within weeks of commencing the drilling of our Perseverance-1 well when we were compelled to defer our planned drilling programme due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediately we undertook a range of activities necessary to reschedule activity toward the end of 2020 and into the first quarter of 2021, consistent with our licence obligations (as extended for the declared force majeure event), by which time we expect the worst of the broad suite of impacts of the pandemic to be behind us. To this end we are pleased to announce that we have today entered into a rig contract with Stena Drilling, which provides a firm series of parameters on rig rate, provision of MPD, mobilisation and demobilisa- tion costs, and defines a revised drilling window of December 15, 2020, to February 1, 2021.
“This decision to lock in a rig now, at an already favourable rig rate, rather than try and second guess what markets and availability will look like later in the year, speaks to our intent to ensure Perseverance-1 is drilled at the soon- est opportunity, and provides the necessary certainty needed for operational planning. Acting decisively in this way is consistent with our single-minded focus on technical delivery. Importantly, the commercial parameters in the rig contract have allowed us to not only revise down significantly the anticipated well cost, but also clears the way to revisit our funding strategy with adequate time to ensure we have the funds available as and when we need them, on the best possible terms. I look forward to updating shareholders in the coming months as we con- tinue making progress towards recommencing operations.”
Bahamas Petroleum Co., May 26 2020
Petrobras on production at Parque das Baleias
Petrobras informs that the Parque das Baleias Area reached today the mark of 1bn barrels of oil produced. The Parque das Baleias Area is formed by the fields of Jubarte, Baleia Anã, Cachalote, Caxaréu and Pirambú.
The first field, Jubarte, was discovered in 2001. Currently, four platforms are in operation, all of them FPSO type, interconnected to 44 pro- ducing wells and 21 injectors.
In the first quarter of 2020, the average daily production of Parque das Baleias was 222,000 barrels of oil and 6mn cubic meters of natural gas, 71% of which came from pre-salt reservoirs.
The Jubarte field was the fourth field with the highest production in the country in the first
quarter of 2020.
Petrobras, May 20 2020
SERVICES
AET takes delivery of first
of four DP2 shuttle tankers
for Petrobras
AET, a leading energy logistics provider, took delivery of Eagle Petrolina, the first of four Suezmax Dynamic Positioning (DP2) Shuttle Tankers purposed built for long-term charter to Petrobras.
In May 2018, AET and Petrobras entered into a long-term charter to operate four Suezmax shuttle tankers in the Brazilian Basin, and Eagle Petrolina is the first of these contracted vessels. She was delivered to AET on May 22, 2020, and will commence her operations in mid-late June joining the two vessels AET already operates in the Brazilian Basin for Petrobras. Eagle Petr- olina was built at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in South Korea, where her three sisters are currently under construction and due to be delivered later this year. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, all extra health and safety precautions were taken by the AET and Eaglestar site, teams working closely together with the SHI team to safeguard the ongoing construction and delivery.
The four 152,000 DWT vessels have been built to Petrobras’ technical requirements for DP2 shuttle tankers in a collabouration with SHI, DNV-GL and Eaglestar and will operate to the highest operational and environmental standards, including full compliance with IMO NOx Tier 3 and SOx emission requirements.
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