Karoon resumes production at the Bauna Field in the Santos Basin

Karoon announced the resumption of operations at the Baúna field in the Santos Basin, after a shutdown that began in early March. In addition, the company also said that it successfully completed the intervention and resumption of production at the SPS-88 well. Thus, production at the field reached 26,500 barrels per day, a level higher than that recorded before the shutdown.

The flotel (floating accommodation unit) anchored next to the FPSO Cidade de Itajaí since February is expected to remain in place until April 6. It has been used to house additional labor for an extended maintenance campaign focused on reducing the unit’s maintenance backlog and improving equipment reliability. The campaign, carried out largely while the FPSO was operating normally, took advantage of the scheduled shutdown for annual maintenance. Other outstanding maintenance activities are scheduled for the remainder of 2025 and early 2026, which may include a new flotel campaign next year.

Karoon CEO and Managing Director Julian Fowles highlighted that the program to improve the reliability and availability of the FPSO Baúna is progressing well. The unit’s efficiency in the first nine weeks of 2025, before the maintenance shutdown, was over 95%, reflecting the 11,800 work hours performed in late 2024 on critical production equipment. The flotel campaign enabled the completion of an additional 71,000 hours of activities in the next phase of the program to reduce the maintenance backlog and increase equipment redundancy.

“While there is still work to be done to fully eliminate the maintenance backlog and ensure reliable and consistent performance of the FPSO, the activities already completed, combined with those that will be undertaken once Karoon takes ownership of the unit, should enable us to achieve our long-term efficiency target of between 90% and 95%. Increased efficiency will have a positive impact on production results,” said Fowles.

Karoon has also made progress towards acquiring the Baúna FPSO from Altera & Ocyan. The transaction is expected to close by the end of April, and the selection of the new operations and maintenance (O&M) operator for the unit is expected to take place by mid-year. Production projections remain unchanged for now, but will be updated once Karoon takes ownership of the FPSO, selects the new O&M operator and finalizes planning for the next phase of maintenance. Updated cost guidance for 2025 will be released once the terms of the contract with the new operator have been defined.