Brazilian oil company PetroRio has received regulatory approval to drill new wells at the Frade field, offshore Brazil.
PetroRio said that the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Renewable Resources (“Ibama”) had granted it the operating license for the drilling of new wells at the field.
The company has mobilized the Norbe VI semi-submersible drilling rig to begin the Frade field revitalization campaign in the coming days.
"The company will keep the market informed of the outcome of the campaign," PetroRio said Tuesday.
The oil and gas company last year hired Ocyan Drilling's Norbe VI semi-submersible drilling rig for this project, as well as for the Wahoo field development, offshore Brazil.
PetroRio said at the time that it would use the rig to drill three wells in the Frade Field (1 producer and 2 injectors) followed by the drilling of 4 producer wells in the Wahoo Field.
The drilling contract is for an initial period of 500 days and PetroRio will have an option to extend this term for an additional 350 days, divided into periods of 70 days each.
The rig, built in 2010, is a semi-submersible drilling platform with dynamic positioning, able to operate at 2.4 thousand meters of water depth and drill wells up to 7.5 thousand meters.
PetroRio became the operator of the Frade field when it in 2019 bought Chevron's 51.74% stake in the producing field - including the FPSO Frade - increasing its interest to 70%. It then, in October 2019, bought a further 18.3% stake from Japanese trio Inpex, Sojitz, and Jogmec.