Photo: REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
Last Tuesday (26/04), Brazilian state-owned Petrobras announced the receipt of a compensation payment from TotalEnergies in the amount of R$ 4.7 billion. Due to the company's participation in the production of oil through the pre-salt in the Atapu field, one of the most important of the company currently for the exploration of the raw material in the national territory.
Brazilian state-owned Petrobras announced this week that it had received a compensation payment of 4.7 billion reais ($940.24 million) from TotalEnergies EP Brasil Ltda for the Atapu oil field, which has oil production focused on pre- -sal, one of the biggest bets of the company and of the segment world oil for the expansion of the sector over the next few years in Brazil and throughout the world's production chain.
Thus, Petrobras also commented that this payment was made in reference to a stake of 22.5% in a consortium made between the company, Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda (25%) and TotalEnergies. Thus, the payment of R$ 4.7 billion that the company made to the Brazilian state-owned company was in reference to this minority stake in the pre-salt exploration and oil production operations that will take place in the Atapu oil field, which belongs to the company .
In addition, over the past few weeks, European giant Shell has deposited nearly US$ 1.1 billion in the Brazilian state-owned company for a stake in oil production also in the Atapu pre-salt exploration field. The compensation payment from both companies is covering the sunk costs so far incurred by operator Petrobras, which in 2010 received contractual rights to produce 550 million barrels of oil equivalent from Atapu. In this way, the state-owned company will be able to benefit from these amounts for more investments within the rural production chain over the next few years.
After the consortium carried out between Petrobras, with a total stake in 52.5%, Shell in 25% and TotalEnergies in 22.5%, the companies agreed in December last year to acquire surplus volumes that were auctioned by the Brazilian government for the production field of Atapu oil. However, the exceeded volumes in question were never disclosed by the government for the continuity of the partnership between the three companies in this initiative.
Despite this, the companies will now work together to develop the remaining resources in the Atapu pre-salt field, where production began in June 2020 via the P-70 floating production, storage and offloading vessel. In addition, compensation payments will also be essential for oil production sharing contracts, as Petrobras intends to increasingly expand exploration of the resource in the field.
Finally, upon completion of the production sharing agreements, Petrobras, Shell and TotalEnergies' stakes in Atapu will be reorganized to equal the appropriate recoverable reserves to which each company will be entitled, as a way of ensuring fair production and procurement for the three companies involved in the consortium. Petrobras and TotalEnergies are also in negotiations for another such partnership, but the project is still in the early stages.
