Baker Hughes, OneSubsea, and Constellation sign up for subsea and drilling jobs at Brazilian oil fields

Brazilian energy player Brava Energia, former 3R Petroleum before the merger with Enauta, has hired three players – Baker Hughes, SLB’s OneSubsea, and Constellation Oil Services – to bring to life its first integrated development campaign at two offshore oil fields with an option to develop a third asset as a tie-back to existing infrastructure off the coast of Brazil.

The Brazilian energy player signed contracts with the trio in November 2024. This campaign will entail the drilling and interconnection of two wells at the Atlanta field and two more at the Papa-Terra field, with the possibility of drilling a well at Malombe, for which the final investment decision is planned in the second quarter of 2025.

If the option to develop the third asset is exercised, the project will be completed through a subsea tie-back to Peroa. The work will start in the fourth quarter of 2025, with the first well connections expected in 2026. According to Brava Energia, proven technologies will be used to bring these projects online.

The company picked the Lone Star semi-submersible rig from Constellation Oil Services for the drilling and completion of four wells, with the possibility of a fifth well to be defined by the company. The new 400-day assignment will allow Constellation’s rig to drill these wells at the Papa Terra and Atlanta fields beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025.

This deal is in direct continuation of the rig’s current gig with Petrobras at the Barracuda field in Brazil’s Campos Basin and comes with a 60-day priced option for a potential workover well, which could extend the contract into the first quarter of 2027.

Operating under Constellation since 2011, this semi-submersible with dynamic positioning can operate in water depths of up to 7,900 feet (about 2,408 meters) and has a drilling capacity of up to 30,000 feet (around 9,144 meters). The rig is equipped to operate in water depths typical of the Brazilian pre-salt.

OneSubsea will provide two subsea trees for the Atlanta field, as Papa-Terra and Malombe already have such equipment available. On the other hand, Baker Hughes will supply subsea lines and risers for the Atlanta wells, with an option for the Malombe tie-back.

The Papa-Terra wells will use existing lines. Brava Energia estimated the value of the contracts for the first four wells at approximately $200 million, or around $147 million, with 80% in Atlanta and 62.5% in Papa-Terra.

“The disbursement schedule will be based on contractual milestones, with the following forecast: approximately 9% of the total value in 1H25, 12% in 2H25, 72% in 2026 and 7% in 1H27. The signing of the contracts is an important step in the development of the company’s projects and ensures the availability of essential equipment and services to increase the recovery factor of its main offshore fields,” highlighted the Brazilian operator.

The company disclosed last month that the FPSO Petrojarl I, which worked at the Atlanta field in block BS-4 in the Santos Basin since 2018, was leaving the field after eight years, as the work to replace it with the FPSO Atlanta, bought for Atlanta’s Full Development System (FDS) in 2022, was nearly done.

The firm stopped production at the Papa-Terra oil field in the Campos basin off the coast of Brazil a few months ago. As maintenance and integrity recovery activities have gained speed, the resumption of production is expected in December 2024.