Equinor aligns partnership in Brazil’s Carcará area
Equinor and Barra Energia (“Barra”) have signed an agreement for Equinor to acquire Barra’s 10% interest in the BM-S-8 licence in Brazil’s Santos basin. This transaction will enable Equinor and its partners to fully align interests across the two licences for the Carcará area.
In early June Equinor, ExxonMobil and Galp completed transactions in BM-S-8 to start aligning equity interests with those the three partners hold in the adjacent Carcará North block. BM-S-8 and Carcará North together comprise the Carcará area, which contains approximately 2 billion recoverable barrels of oil equivalent. Equinor is the operator of both blocks and aims to develop the unitised field with the ambition to deliver first oil between 2023 and 2024.
The total consideration for Barra’s 10% interest is USD 379 million, the same as for Equinor’s earlier transaction in BM-S-8 with Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção (QGEP) in July 2017. Closing is subject to customary conditions, including partner and government approval, and price adjustments in consideration of a reference date of July 2016. Upon closing, Equinor intends to sell down 3.5% to ExxonMobil and 3% to Galp, so fully aligning interests across BM-S-8 and Carcará North.
|
BM-S-8 (before transaction with Barra) |
BM-S-8 (after closing of transaction with Barra) |
BM-S-8 (after future transactions with ExxonMobil and Galp) |
Carcará North |
Equinor |
36.5% (operator) |
46.5% (operator) |
40% (operator) |
40% (operator) |
ExxonMobil |
36.5% |
36.5% |
40% |
40% |
Galp |
17% |
17% |
20% |
20% |
Barra Energia |
10% |
- |
- |
- |