Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 15 2021

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It also consulted the US State Department to ask Nabarima to a barge, which then transferred it
whether participation in the operation would to a shuttle tanker, which moved the crude to
cause it to violate sanctions. PdVSA-owned storage depots in Jose and Guar-
The State Department did provide Eni with aguao, Argus Media reported.
reassurances that the unloading of the oil would Now that the oil has been taken out of the
not be subject to the sanctions Washington has FSO, it added, PetroSucre is now in a position to
imposed on Caracas and the Venezuelan oil restart development work at the Corocoro field.
industry. However, the Italian company appears It quoted a representative of the joint venture
to have played a negligible role in the removal as saying that production was likely to resume
operation. within one month. Initial yields are likely to
Instead, PdVSA relied mostly on reach 10,000 barrels per day, rising to 25,000 bpd
local contractors to transfer oil from the by the end of June, the representative added. ™

BRAZIL
ANP gives green light to Enauta’s

takeover of Atlanta oilfield

BRAZILIAN independent Enauta Participações
has secured government approval for its bid to
secure full control of Block BS-4, a shallow-wa-
ter site in the Santos Basin that contains the
Atlanta oilfield.
In a statement dated April 9, Enauta said that
the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas
and Biofuels (ANP) had approved its plan to
acquire a 50% interest in the block from Barra
Energia, another independent Brazilian oper-
ator. Barra announced plans to exit the project
last November, and it struck a deal with Enauta
on the transfer of its stake the following month.
ANP’s decision will help move the transfer
forward, but the transaction has yet to be final-
ised, Enauta noted in its statement. “The defin-
itive conclusion of the transfer is conditional
upon settling the warranties and signature of
the addendum to the concession agreement,” it
explained. The Atlanta field is in a shallow-water section of the Santos basin (Image: Enauta)
Once the deal is wrapped up, Enauta will
be able to add Barra’s 50% stake in BS-4 to its barrels per day and the projected 2021 level of
own 50% holding. It can also expect to collect 16,000 bpd.
$43.9mn from Barra, as the latter company has Enauta’s development programme for
pledged to pay that sum to cover the cost of Atlanta is expected to include the installation of
abandoning three wells at the field and decom- a new FPSO unit with a production capacity of
missioning certain facilities there. 50,000 bpd at the field.
Carlos Mastrangelo, Enauta’s production The vessel will be connected to 12 develop-
officer, said he expected the acquisition of the ment wells, all of which are due to begin operat-
block containing the Atlanta oilfield to bene- ing by next year.
fit his company. “The decision to increase our “We are focused on increasing operational
working interest in the Atlanta field was guided efficiency and reducing costs of both the early
by studies that evidenced its potential,” he production system and the full development
commented. system,” Mastrangelo said. “We launched in
Atlanta is located in the shallow-water sec- March the bid for the FPSO of the full devel-
tion of the Santos Basin off Brazil’s south-eastern opment system and, in line with our strategy
coast. It contains more than 1bn barrels of heavy of portfolio diversification, we are now seeking
crude oil, and Enauta believes that the site can new partners to develop the field. We have no
be developed profitably. It also hopes to raise doubt that Atlanta is a resilient project, capable
production levels from the 2020 level of 20,000 of creating value for the company.” ™

Week 15 15•April•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9