Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 19 2021

LatAmOil SURINAME LatAmOil

NTS serves states that make up half of Brazil’s gas consumption (Image: Staatsolie)

To date, the NOC has not identified the blocks that targeted shallow-water sites have had disap-
that attracted interest. However, industry ana- pointing results.
lysts told OlNOW.gy last week that they believed To date, five oilfields have been discovered
that participants had tried to gain access to offshore Suriname. They are Maka Central,
blocks that are relatively close to Block 58, an Sapakara, Kwaskwasi and Keskesi at Block 58,
offshore licence area where Apache (US) and operated by Total; and Sloanea at Block 52, oper-
Total (France) have already discovered four ated by Petronas (Malaysia).
oilfields. Staatsolie opened the bidding contest late
The sites in question probably include Block last November and stopped accepting offers on
6 and Block 8, which are directly adjacent to April 30 of this year. The NOC will take a 20%
Block 58 – and also the furthest from shore. equity stake in each new PSC it signs.
If so, the outcome of the auctions may indi- The eight blocks included in the auction lie
cate that investors are relatively less optimistic directly along the migration pathway between
about the prospects of shallower sections of Suriname’s onshore oilfields and the offshore
Suriname’s offshore zone. This would not be fields within Block 52 and Block 58. Staatsolie
surprising, given that past drilling programmes has described these sites as “underexplored.” ™

BRAZIL
Keppel to build P-78 FPSO under

new contract with Petrobras

BRAZIL’S national oil company (NOC) Petro- is due to be completed and delivered in 2024.
bras has tasked Keppel Shipyard (Singapore) It will be able to handle 180,000 barrels per day
with building a new floating production, storage (bpd) of crude oil and 7.2mn cubic metres per
and off-loading (FPSO) vessel to be deployed at day of associated and natural gas.
Búzios, an offshore oilfield in the pre-salt section The contract is in line with Brazil’s local con-
of the Santos basin. tent laws, Keppel said in its statement. It noted
Keppel announced the contract award in a that the relevant legislation calls for Brazilian
statement earlier this week and put the value of companies to provide 25% of total content, with
the deal at $2.3bn. It also noted that the FPSO related services to be executed locally within the
would eventually become the seventh such ves- framework of partnership agreements with or
sel to be installed at Búzios. subcontract awards to Brazilian state-owned
The vessel, which will be known as the P-78, companies.

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