Naftex Energy Corp. subsidiary Coplex Petroleo do Brasil Ltda. and two other companies have entered a farmout agreement with Petroleo Brasileiro SA that will give them a combined 65% working interest in Block BS-3 in the Santos Basin off Brazil's southeast coast. The farmout will enable development work to begin in two fields on the block.
Coplex will hold a 27.5% interest in the block. The other two partners are Brazil's Queiroz Galvao Perfuracoes SA and Starfish Oil & Gas.
The three companies will carry Petrobras, which will remain the block operator, through the development phase. Naftex anticipates Coplex Brazil's share of the development costs will total $30 million.
This agreement ends nearly 2 years of negotiations and represents Naftex's first petroleum license award in Brazil. The agreement is subject to certain conditions, including receipt of necessary regulatory approvals.
The new joint venture plans to drill an exploratory well on the block and develop the Coral and Estrela-do-Mar fields. Water depths on Block BS-3 range from 330 ft to 750 ft. The Coral and Estrela-do-Mar fields are in about 450 ft of water.
The companies plan to drill and complete a new well in the Coral field and re-enter, drill a sidetrack from, and complete an existing well in the same field.
At the Estrela-do-Mar field, they will reenter and complete a well. Three wells are expected to be equipped with subsea horizontal christmas trees and tied back with flow lines and risers to a semisubmersible production platform to be anchored at Coral field.
Aggregate recoverable reserves for the two fields are expected to reach 26.9 million bbl of 37-42� gravity oil with low sulfur content, according to the report of an independent consulting company. The productive reservoirs are Albian limestones.
