Page 7 - AsianOil Week 01

AsianOil
SOUTHEAST ASIA
AsianOil
Rokan, which lies in Riau Province on the island of Sumatra, covers 6,000 square km and contains 96 oilfields. Following the Indonesian Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises’ direction that Pertamina had to find a development partner for Rokan, the company announced in September 2019 that it was officially open to farm-in talks. There has been no news on this front since then.
Samsu’s comments last week come just two weeks after upstream regulator SKK Migas warned that the block’s production could shrink by up to 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2020.
SKK Migas head Dwi Soetjipto told reporters on December 17 that the block’s transition would see production fall 15.27% year on year in 2020 to 161,000 bpd. Production for the first half of 2019 was almost 191,000 bpd.
Chevron has been reluctant to invest heavily in the block, given that its contract is about to expire. Progress on the transition remains under wraps, with Chevron refusing to be drawn by
local media on the process. The US company’s local communications manager, Sonitha Poer- nomo, told the Jakarta Post on December 18: “A joint steering committee consisting of SKK Migas, Chevron Pacific Indonesia and Pertam- ina has been formed to ensure effective collabo- ration for a safe and successful transfer.”
The last clear milestone was in September 2019, when the local daily quoted Samsu as saying that Pertamina had received “part of the [topological] subsurface data” from Chevron and that the companies had validated 13 of 78 potential oil wells.
Despite SKK Migas’ production warning, the regulator remains upbeat on the field’s long-term prospects. Deputy head Fatar Yani Abdurrah- man told CNBC Indonesia in September 2019 that Chevron was in a position to boost output to 400,000 bpd using enhance oil recovery (EOR) methods, but that the imminent expiry of the contract had removed the incentive to do so.™
Petronas completes deal for Brazilian fields
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
MALAYSIA’S state-owned Petronas completed the acquisition late last month of a 50% stake in two deepwater fields in Brazil’s Campos Basin.
The major said on December 28, 2019 that its local subsidiary Petronas Petroleo Brasil Ltd (PPBL) had finalised the deal to acquire the Tar- taruga Verde field as well as Module III of the Espadarte field from Brazil’s state-run Petrobras. The two companies signed a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) on April 25, 2019 under which the Malaysian firm agreed to fork over $1.29bn for the stake. Petrobras retains a 50% interest in both assets and will continue to operate the fields.
The deal’s closure comes just two months after PPBL won three offshore exploration blocks in the Campos Basin – CM 661, CM 715 and CM 541. The company owns 100% of CM 661 and CM715aswellas20%ofCM541.Itbidforthe last block as part of a consortium that includes French major Total and Qatar Petroleum, which each own 40% of the acreage.
The Total-led consortium agreed to pay BRL4.03bn ($1bn) for CM 541, which adjoins a pre-salt area and is believed to enjoy similar geology.
The mature Campos Basin, which has been in production since the 1980s, is Brazil’s most prolific basin. The country’s exploration focus, however, has shifted to Santos Basin’s pre-salt discoveries over the past couple of decades. As such, more attention is being paid to finding sim- ilar plays in the Campos.
Petronas’ other ventures in Brazil include its lubricants business, Petronas Lubrificantes Bra- sil, as well as logistics operations through sub- sidiary MISC.
The Malaysian major also noted that it had signed four new production-sharing contracts (PSCs) in Malaysia and two in Gabon and had also acquired two offshore blocks in Egypt. It said these efforts were in line with its strategy to secure opportunities in prolific basins.™
Week 01 08•January•2020 w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m P7