In November 2020, Karoon completed the acquisition of 100% of the Baúna asset, comprising the Baúna and Piracaba producing oil fields (known as Baúna) and the Patola discovered resource in Concession BM-S-40, from Petrobras.
The acquisition price was US$380 million plus a tiered contingent consideration of up to US$285 million in total,dependent on future oil prices over the period 2022 – 2026.
Petrobras discovered the Baúna and Piracaba fields, located approximately 220 kilometres offshore Brazil in the southern Santos Basin, in 2008. Production commenced in 2013, with rates peaking at approximately 70,000 bopd before the field entered its natural decline phase. In 2019, Baúna was listed for sale, as production rates were no longer considered material to Petrobras. At the time of completion of Karoon’s acquisition in November 2020, production was averaging 14,800 bopd and, of the initial 170 MMbbl 2P recoverable reserves, approximately 138 MMbbl had been produced.
The transfer of operatorship from Petrobras to Karoon occurred with no material safety incidents or interruption to production. Karoon’s highest priority remains on maintaining safe, reliable and responsible operations.
The Baúna development consists of 10 sub-sea wells, flowing through sea-bed flowlines to a floating production, storage and offloading facility (FPSO). The FPSO is operated by Altera&Ocyan and is leased back to Karoon. The FPSO has fluid handling capacity of approximately 80,000 bpd and storage capacity of approximately 600,000 bbl of oil.
Baúna crude is a high-quality oil with an API between 33 and 38 degrees, and is low in impurities. Oil from the field is sold under a marketing arrangement with Shell Western Supply and Trading Limited (a member of the Royal Dutch Shell Plc group) and realises a price related to Brent crude.