Sept. 24 – Petrobras plans to install a production platform at the Mãe de Ouro field—which has not yet been drilled—in the Potiguar Basin, should the discovery’s potential be confirmed, stated Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard. Ibama authorized offshore drilling for this block and three others in March of this year.
“If this discovery plays out as we expect, it could mean another platform in the deep waters off Rio Grande do Norte. In other words, we can look forward to Seap (Sergipe Deepwater), which will feature two platforms; Mãe de Ouro, which—if all goes well—will enable a deepwater cluster in RN; and the deepwater areas of Amapá in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, where we are currently drilling the Morpho well,” Magda explained.
The same drillship currently drilling the Morpho well in the Foz do Amazonas Basin will be responsible for drilling the Mãe de Ouro well. In total, Petrobras plans to drill 15 wells along the Equatorial Margin—a region encompassing the Foz do Amazonas, Pará-Maranhão, Barreirinhas, Ceará, and Potiguar basins. According to the state-owned company’s 2026–2030 Strategic Plan, the estimated investment for these 15 wells is US$ 2.5 billion.
The two Seap platforms will be built by SBM Offshore. The contracts for the project’s two FPSOs mark Petrobras’s first use of the BOT (Build, Operate, and Transfer) model, under which the contractor is responsible for the design, construction, assembly, and operation of the asset for an initial period defined in the contract. Subsequently, operations are transferred to Petrobras. These are FPSOs considered to be twins—that is, virtually identical—each with the capacity to produce 120,000 barrels per day and process 12 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
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