Karoon places best bid for Petrobras’ Bauna field

Australian oil and gas company Karoon is set to get hold of Petrobras’ Bauna offshore field in Brazil, almost three years after the initial agreement had been suspended.

In a statement on Friday, responding to a report by Upstream, Karoon said: “Karoon confirms it has been notified that it has presented the high bid in the process to acquire a 100% operating interest in Santos Basin off-shore Brazil concession BM-S-40, which contains the producing Bauna light oil project.”

Just a little over a year ago, Petrobras started a non-binding phase for the sale of its entire stake in the Bauna field, located in shallow waters in the Santos Basin.

Petrobras had been in exclusive talks Australia’s Karoon over the sale of an interest in Bauna and Tartaruga Verde fields back in 2016, however, shortly after the start of negotiations, court proceedings were initiated against the potential sale of the assets, alleging that Petrobras did not follow the correct sale process. An injunction was granted on November 19, 2016, suspending the potential sale at the time.

Commenting further on Monday, Karoon said that the transaction for the Bauna field remained subject to approval by Petrobras’ Board and governance bodies. The field has been in production since February 2013.

“This bid is in line with Karoon’s stated strategy to create value for shareholders by acquiring a high quality, transformational production asset,” Karoon said Monday.

Karoon has previously said it is looking to complete the acquisition of “a foundation production asset that will underpin long-term sustainable growth and shareholder value.”