Brazil independent HRT has outlined plans to invest up to US $75 million in its heavy oil Polvo field in the Campos basin to accelerate development activity and overall reservoir recovery rates.

The field – from which Maersk Oil decided to exit earlier this year – averaged 9,700 b/d of oil in the third quarter of this year, and 10,000 b/d for the full year so far. Operational efficiency is at 98% added HRT, which now wants to invest in the field to extend its lifespan until the end of 2017 using the currently producing wells and the proved and developed reserves known. Last year the operational efficiency rate was approximately 80%, it said.

HRT clearly remains upbeat on the longer-term potential for the field, describing Polvo as having “represented a turning point for HRT, both considering the production trend seen during its first nine months of operation, and the cost-saving initiatives which have been implemented that mitigates the effects of the drop in oil price in the international market, contributing to the initiatives of extending the field’s economic lifespan”.

In the nine months ended 30 September, 2014 HRT says it was able to reduce production costs on the field by 14%, compared to equivalent nine months last year. Since becoming field operator it has carried out actions including revising several agreements for the field related to vessels, shore bases in Niterói and helicopters.

It is still, however, dealing with other issues, such as the national petroleum agency ANP carrying out an audit on the Polvo A platform’s drilling rig, which identified “a number of improvement opportunities which have been observed by HRT, within the deadline indicated by ANP”.

HRT says it intends to keep executing well interventions, as well as drilling new wells to develop the field’s 1P and 2P reserves. “These activities rely on concluding investments in the rig, ANP’s authorization and the assignment of Maersk’s interest in the Polvo field”. HRT had to file an appeal with ANP earlier this year after it initially denied approval of the assignment. HRT and Maersk had signed a purchase and sale agreement in July for the former to acquire the latter’s 40% in the field area. A review is ongoing. If approved HRT will have a 100% stake in the field.

In the third quarter HRT says the Polvo field operations team implemented a study into the field’s production behavioural profile since 2012 til today, revealing that production (since it became operator) has acquired “a more stable profile and downtimes significantly lower than those recorded in previous years”.

This has led to a new estimate for the field’s future production behaviour which is 11.8% higher than initially estimated. “Taking into account current market prices, higher operational efficiency and initiatives to reduce production costs, the company believes that the field’s economic lifespan has capacity to be extended for another year further than the initial estimate, until the end of 2017, considering current production wells,” it stated.

HRT is also in the midst of ongoing negotiations related to a possible connection and unitisation between Polvo and the nearby OGX Oil and Gas-operated Tubarão Martelo field, which the latter opposes. HRT believes the Tubarão Martelo reservoir extends into the Polvo field’s ringfence area, but says it has not yet received the necessary seismic and geological data from OGX.

  • Elsewhere, HRT is still in the process of trying to sell down its exploration assets offshore south-western Africa’s Namibia. It has had meetings with “interested companies” as potential partners for its licences, it says, rather than looking to sell out entirely and is currently in ongoing talks with the Namibian government over the licence renewal process, where it is seeking a 3-year extension. In the third quarter it continued with 3-D modelling studies of oil systems in the Walvis and Orange Basins by applying data collected at source rocks and reservoir from three wells drilled. The studies clearly evidence the basins’ oil potential, it says.