The Patola oil field being developed in the Santos Basin, Brazil is expected to start production in the first quarter of 2023.
Karoon Energy is the operator and holds a 100% interest in the concession BM-S-40 that hosts the Patola field.
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Karoon Energy made a final investment decision (FID) on the Patola field development in June 2021. The field development involves the subsea development and a tieback to the nearby FPSO Cidade de Itajaí which is currently serving the Baúna field.
The total investment on the Patola field development is estimated to be approximately £137.7m ($195m). Karoon Energy will receive £113m ($160m) in debt funding for the project from a global lenders syndicate which comprises Deutsche Bank, ING, Macquarie and Shell.
Karoon Energy acquired a 100% interest and assumed operatorship of the concession BM-S-40 from Brazil’s state-owned Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in November 2020.
Location and reservoir details
The Patola field is situated adjacent to the Baúna field in the shallow water concession BM-S-40 in the Santos Basin, Brazil. The water depth in the field area is approximately 280m.
Discovered in 2011, the field consists of Oligocene turbidite sandstone reservoirs. The 2C contingent resources of the field are estimated to be approximately 13.2 million barrels. An additional 1.5 million barrels of oil resources are also believed to be recoverable from the Baúna reservoir through the gas injection from the Patola field.
The Patola field development and the Baúna well intervention programme is expected to double the production in the concession BM-S-40 to approximately 30,000 barrels of oil a day (bpd) by 2023.
Field development plan
The initial field development will involve the drilling of two vertical subsea production wells, installation of associated subsea infrastructure, including Christmas trees, flowlines, and umbilicals. The wells will be tied back to spare riser slots on the FPSO Cidade de Itajaí.
The initial production from the Patola field is expected to be more than 10,000bpd.
FPSO Cidade de Itajaí
The FPSO Cidade de Itajaí has a crude oil production capacity of 80,000bpd, a gas compression and reinjection capacity of two million cubic meters a day, and a storage capacity of approximately 600,000 barrels of oil. Designed to operate in a water depth of up to 1,000m,the FPSO is currently operating at 50% of its production capacity.
A joint-venture between Altera Infrastructure (50%) and Ocyan (50%) operates the FPSO Cidade de Itajaí at the Baúna field for Karoon Energy. Following the acquisition of the concession BM-S-40, Karoon extended the charter and operations contract for FPSO by four years until February 2026. The earlier contract with Petrobras is set to expire in February 2022.
The FPSO Cidade de Itajaí processed more than 100 million barrels of oil since the start of operations at the Baúna field in February 2013. It will undergo minor modifications to handle the production from the Patola field.
Contracts awarded
TechnipFMC bagged an integrated engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (iEPCI™) contract for the Patola field development from Karoon Energy in June 2021. This award marks the first iEPCI contract for TechnipFMC in Brazil.
The scope of the contract includes the design, fabrication, and installation of subsea trees, flowlines, risers, and umbilicals. The subsea infrastructure is anticipated to be delivered and installed in the second half of 2022.
Maersk Drilling was awarded a contract extension worth approximately £19m ($27m) for drilling two production wells at the Patola field in June 2021.
Earlier, Maersk Drilling was contracted to execute well intervention works on four wells at the Baúna field in April 2021.
Semi-submersible rig Maersk Developer will be deployed at the Baúna and Patola fields to execute the contract. The four-well workover campaign at the Baúna field is anticipated to start in the first half of 2022 followed by the two-well development drilling work at the Patola field in the second half of 2022.
