Statoil ASA and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras have agreed that Statoil will acquire Petrobras’ 66 percent operated interest of the BM-S-8 offshore licence in Brazil’s highly prolific Santos basin. The acquisition includes a substantial part of the Carcará oil discovery, one of the largest discoveries in the world in recent years. The total consideration for the acquisition is USD 2.5 billion. Half of it will be paid upon closing of the transaction, with the remainder being paid when certain milestones have been met.
Carcará was discovered in 2012, on the geological trend of the nearby Lula field and Libra area. It is a world-class discovery of high-quality oil of around 30° API and with associated gas in a thick reservoir with excellent properties. It straddles both BM-S-8 and open acreage to the north, which is expected to be part of a licence round in 2017. Statoil is well positioned for operatorship of a unitised Carcará field following this transaction and the licence round will provide an opportunity to scale up the position in the field. Statoil estimates the recoverable volumes within the BM-S-8 licence to be in the range of 700 to 1,300 million boe.
In addition to the Carcará discovery, BM-S-8 holds exploration upside that may significantly increase its resource base. The licence is in its final exploration phase with one remaining exploration commitment well to be drilled by 2018.