Total Wins More Acreage off Brazil

French major Total has won the operatorship and 40% of the C-M-541 pre-salt offshore block in the Campos basin in Brazil's 16th bidding round, it said October 10. Its "strategic" co-venturers are Qatar Petroleum (40%) and Malaysian Petronas (20%), it said.

CEO Patrick Pouyanne said the award was "another demonstration of our ability to seize high quality exploration acreage in a key growth area... This is in line with our strategy to continue building our operator positions in Brazil’s deep offshore, where we can add value thanks to our deepwater competencies."

The company will not therefore be participating in the upcoming transfer-of-rights surplus round, as the competitive tender is only offering non-operated interests.

The consortium plans to drill a first exploration well in the field in 2021. This entry into a new block follows the FID made by Total and its partners in June 2019 for the second FPSO of the Mero project (Libra Block), which is expected to start up in 2022. The first FPSO of the Mero project is progressing according to schedule, with start-up planned in 2021. The first FPSO of the Iara project is expected to start up later this year and the second one in 2020. 

Qatar has joined Total and other majors in several upstream production projects abroad, and the majors are hoping for inclusion in what could be the lowest-cost liquefaction project when it comes on line around 2024 onwards: the Qatar North Field expansion.