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Petrobras said in a statement that it had encoun- tered 214 metres of oil pay in a well drilled in 450-metre-deep water at a site 184 km from the city of Macaé. The well lies within a section of the Albacora field known as the Forno Discov- ery Assessment Plan (PAD) area and has been
tested up to a depth of 4,630 metres.
Petrobras, which owns a 100% stake in the
Albacora field, said it would continue to eval- uate the reservoir and the characteristics of its new find. It described the oil as light but did not comment on its sulphur content.
Premier Oil says Navitas remains keen on Sea Lion farm-in deal
FALKLAND ISLANDS
UK-BASED Premier Oil indicated last week that it had not given up on plans to sell part of its stake in PL032, a block off the coast of the Falk- land Islands. The block, which includes the Sea Lion oilfield, is estimated to hold about 1.7bn barrels of oil in place (OIP).
Premier and its partner, Rockhopper Explo- ration (UK), had announced plans for a farm- out deal with Navitas Petroleum (Israel) in January of this year.
At that time, they said they had drawn up plans for a redistribution of equity in which Navitas would take a 30% stake in PL032, with 20% coming out of Premier’s current share of 60% and the remaining 10% coming out of Rockhopper’s 30%.
Then in March, Premier said that the parties were moving closer to striking an agreement and might finalise the deal “during the first half of 2020, with completion subject to regulatory and lender approval.”
So far, the parties have yet to finalise an agreement to this effect. Nevetheless, Premier reported last week that talks were continuing and asserted that Navitas remained keen on joining the project. “A reduced team will con- tinue to progress government, commercial and financing matters, including the transaction documentation with Navitas, [which remains] committed to farming in for a 30% interest in the Sea Lion licences,” it said in a statement.
Premier explained its reference to a “reduced team” by noting that it had taken steps to reduce its spending in response to the recent plunge in crude oil prices. One of these steps is the suspen- sion of work on the Sea Lion project, it stated.
“Sea Lion Phase 1 is complete from a tech- nical aspect, and all of the work [that] has been done to date is being fully documented, such that the project can be reactivated once
the macroeconomic outlook improves,” it commented.
According to previous reports, Premier and Rockhopper expect to spend about $1.8bn to develop the PL032 block, which lies in the North Falkland Basin. The partners found oil at the Sea Lion section of the block in 2010 and said in 2014 that they hoped to begin production in about five years. They have yet to take a final investment decision (FID), however.
Sea Lion is part of the PL032 block (Image: Rockhopper Exploration)
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