TotalEnergies and Shell have formalized payments to Petrobras for separate, minority stakes in the pre-salt Atapu field in the Santos Basin. TotalEnergies paid $4.7 billion reais ($940 million) while Shell paid closer to $1.1 billion.
The Atapu block was acquired by the consortium comprising Petrobras (52.5%), Shell (25%), and TotalEnergies (22.5%) in the Second Bidding Round for the Transfer of Rights auction held 17 December 2021. The payments are compensation for monies spent thus far by Petrobras, which was granted contractual rights to produce 550 million BOE from Atapu in 2010.
The partners will now work together to produce additional volumes from the field. Production at Atapu started in June 2020 via the P-70 FPSO. The unit is in about 2000 m of water and has the capacity to produce 150,000 BOED.