Petrobras cleared to combine two offshore fields after 7 years

Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels (ANP) has approved the unification of two oil and gas fields in the country’s pre-salt Santos Basin operated by the state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras.

According to Petrobras, the decision to unify the Berbigão and Sururu fields, forming part of concession BM-S-11A offshore Brasil was made on January 23, 2025.  As a result, the production of the two fields will now be reported as a single unit. The license also comprises a third field, Oeste de Atapu.

Following the regulator’s decision, the rate applied to the corresponding special participation payment for the unified field will be increased retroactively to the production start date. Petrobras submitted the revised development plans for the reservoirs in 2018.

Known as the Iara cluster, the concession is operated by Petrobras with a 42.5% stake. The remaining shares are held by Shell Brasil (25%), TotalEnergies (22.5%), and Petrogal (10%).

The ANP’s decision also provides for the unification of the areas referring to the transfer of rights contract for the Entorno de Iara block (Sul de Berbigão and Sul de Sururu; Norte de Berbigão and Norte de Sururu), 100% operated by Petrobras. In this case, there will be no special participation charge. 

The Berbigão field has been producing since 2019 from the floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit P-68, which was later also connected to Sururu. The FPSO was completed at Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA), a wholly-owned and operated subsidiary of Sembcorp Marine (now known as Seatrium).

The production at Atapu kicked off the following year through FPSO P-70, which has a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, the same as P-68.

The Brazilian giant recently prolonged the assignment of another FPSO, Cidade de Angra dos Reis, working at the Lula field, also located in the Santos Basin. Thanks to a five-year extension, the unit is set to stay in the field until 2030.