Equinor and Barra Energia (“Barra”) have signed an agreement for Equinor to acquire Barra’s 10% interest in the BM-S-8 license in Brazil’s Santos basin. This transaction will enable Equinor and its partners to fully align interests across the two licenses for the Carcará area.

CEO Renato Bertani (left), Barra Energia, and Anders Opedal, Brazil country manager. (Photo: Guilherme Botelho / Equinor ASA)

In early June Equinor, ExxonMobil and Galp completed transactions in BM-S-8 to start aligning equity interests with those the three partners hold in the adjacent Carcará North block. BM-S-8 and Carcará North together comprise the Carcará area, which contains approximately 2 billion recoverable barrels of oil equivalent. Equinor is the operator of both blocks and aims to develop the unitized field with the ambition to deliver first oil between 2023 and 2024.

The total consideration for Barra’s 10% interest is USD 379 million, the same as for Equinor’s earlier transaction in BM-S-8 with Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção (QGEP) in July 2017. Closing is subject to customary conditions, including partner and government approval, and price adjustments in consideration of a reference date of July 2016. Upon closing, Equinor intends to sell down 3.5% to ExxonMobil and 3% to Galp, so fully aligning interests across BM-S-8 and Carcará North.