PETRONAS Wins Sépia Field In Brazil Bid Round

Kuala Lumpur, 17 December 2021 – PETRONAS Petróleo Brasil Ltda. (PPBL), a subsidiary of PETRONAS, and its consortium partners have won the Sépia field, located in the Santos Basin, during Brazil’s Second Transfer of Rights Surplus Volume Bidding Round held in Rio de Janeiro. 

Following this successful bid, PETRONAS will hold a 21% interest alongside operator Petrobras (30%), TotalEnergies (28%) and QatarEnergy (21%). The results were publicly announced by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in a live broadcast.

PETRONAS President and Group CEO, Datuk Tengku Muhammad Taufik said, “PETRONAS is extremely encouraged with the outcome of the bid round which marks our entry into the Santos Basin. This signals our commitment to strengthen our ventures in Brazil which offers the world’s most prolific basins. Establishing our presence in the Americas is in line with our global growth strategy. 

“Even as we work closely with our partners, together with the support of the Host Government, PETRONAS will remain focused on pursuing value creation while continuing our decarbonizing efforts in order to sustainably develop and monetise the Sépia field.”

Sépia is a pre-salt oil field in the Santos Basin, located in water depths about 2,000 meters off the coast of Rio de Janerio and has started its production in August 2021 through a dedicated 180,000 bpd floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO). The second FPSO is expected to be sanctioned soon which would increase the overall production capacity of the field.

PPBL currently has a participating interest in the Tartaruga Verde (BM-C-36 Concession) and Module III of the Espadarte (Espadarte Concession) deepwater fields located in the Campos Basin, offshore Brazil. PPBL also holds participating interests in three other deepwater exploration blocks in the Campos Basin, (C-M-661, C-M-715 and C-M-541) which were awarded during Brazil’s Concession Exploration Bid Round 16 in 2019.