Karoon relinquishing Australian permits to concentrate on South America
Karoon Energy Ltd., Melbourne, has begun relinquishing its exploration permits offshore Australia to concentrate its efforts offshore Brazil and Peru.
Chairman Bruce Phillips made the announcement during his address to the company’s annual general meeting in November.
Phillips said Karoon had already relinquished Western Australian permit WA-314-P after failing to attract a suitable farminee. The company has also begun relinquishment proceedings for its offshore South Australian permit EPP46 in the Great Australian Bight where a well was due to be drilled prior to October 2021.
In addition, Karoon has reduced staff size in Australia and was rationalizing its premises in the country.
In Brazil, Phillips said, the company has increased personnel where it has 100% interest in the Baúna, Neon, and Goiá oil fields in the southern offshore Santos basin.
Baúna, a 68 million bbl field, was bought from Petrobras in July for US$665 million. It currently produces 20,000 b/d via a floating production, storage, and offloading facility (Cidade de Itajai). An undeveloped oil discovery at Patola is nearby.
Karoon already had the Neon and Goiá fields where it tested significant oil. The impetus of continuing Baúna development is expected to aid the development of Neon and Goiá.
In addition, Karoon has a 40% interest and operatorship of Block Z-38 in the Tumbes basin offshore Peru which contains the prospective multi-reservoir Marina prospect. In November, the company contracted the Stena Forth dynamic positioning drillship to drill the Marina-1 wildcat early in the first quarter of 2020.
The well is in a water depth of 350 m.
Marina has a prospective resource of 256 million bbl of oil and, if successful, would de-risk a number of other prospects in the block as well as in Karoon’s 100%-owned Area 73 technical evaluation permit to the south.
Karoon’s recent placement and entitlement offer raised more than A$175 million to fund these international projects.