Equinor identifies Brazil as a core area of focus

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- After expressing concern about the long-term future offshore Norway, energy major Equinor said Wednesday that Brazil's energy sector was now a core area.

Equinor has more than 90,000 barrels of oil per day in production in Brazil and investments of around $10 billion in place.

"We have a portfolio with the potential to produce between 300,000 and 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2030, depending on phasing of projects and exploration success," Anders Opedal, executive vice president for Brazilian development, said in a statement.

In Norway, Equinor is on pace to keep producing oil and gas at a profitable level until 2030. Its Johan Sverdrup field, the largest development in nearly 40 years, starts moving toward peak capacity of 660,000 bpd by 2022.

Offshore Norway enters a maturation phase after 2030 and may require heavy investments to stay in production. There are few major projects planned currently beyond Johan Sverdrup.

In Brazil, the company is already producing at its Peregrino field and expects a second phase of operations there to start in 2020. Over the next two years, Equinor has scheduled to drill into some of the most lucrative basins off the coast of Brazil.

"Over the next two years we expect to drill up to five high impact wells in the Campos and Santos basins, with potential comparable to some of the giants that shaped the Norwegian continental shelf in the 1970 and 1980s," Tim Dodson, the company's executive vice president for exploration, said.

Equinor in June completed a transaction with Brazilian company Petróleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, for a 25 percent stake in the Roncador oil field in the Campos basin off the Brazilian coast.

Announced in December, the $2 billion deal included $550 million in contingent payments for projects meant to boost field recovery. Roncador is the third-largest field in production in Brazil. Stimulus efforts could boost recoverable reserves from 1 billion boe to 1.5 billion boe.

Equinor is not abandoning Norway. It plans to drill 3,000 new wells over the coming decades, extend the life of dozens of offshore installations and tap as many as 30 exploration wells per year to find new sources of natural gas.