BW Energy Takes FID for Maromba Field Offshore Brazil
May 5, 2025
BW Energy has made a final investment decision (FID) for the Maromba development offshore Brazil, which will feature an integrated drilling and wellhead platform (WHP) and a refurbished floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit.
The Maromba development targets 500 million barrels of oil in place in the highly delineated and tested Maastrichtian sands. First oil is planned by end-2027 with expected plateau production of 60,000 barrels of oil per day.
According to BW Energy, it will more than double its total net production by 2028.
The project will include initial six production wells from the WHP, which will be a converted drilling jack-up with up to 16 well slots and production- and test-flowlines connected to the redeployed FPSO BW Maromba, previously named Polvo. The company said it already agreed to acquire a jack-up with complete leg extensions for $107.5 million.
BW Maromba refurbishment and life extension work is already underway at the COSCO yard in China. The FPSO is designed with 1 million barrels of storage capacity. The total liquid capacity will be 100,000 barrels per day with oil production capacity of 65,000 barrels per day and water treatment capacity of 85,000 barrels per day.
The WHP will be installed in around 150 meters of water depth with full drilling facilities. Once installed, the infrastructure will also enable the planned secondary six-well drilling campaign and provide potential for future development phases with low-cost infill wells, potential water injectors as well as allowing appraisal and production of multiple proven reservoirs outside the main Maastrichtian resources.
BW Energy said the second six-well drilling campaign will fully leverage the established field
The total investments would amount to around $1.5 billion, split by $1.2 billion for the initial development and a further $0.3 billion for the secondary drilling campaign .
“We have spent time on optimizing the Maromba development plan and concluded on a highly competitive concept with a repurposed jack-up platform and FPSO, repeating the approach we very successfully applied in Gabon.
“Maromba will enable BW Energy to deliver industry-leading organic production growth and position the Company for further low-cost developments of known potential developments. We expect to unlock significant shareholder value in all realistic oil price scenarios,” said Carl K. Arnet, the CEO of BW Energy.
Maromba is located 100 km off the Brazilian coast in the Campos Basin. Nine wells were drilled in the license between 1980 and 2006, with oil found in eight of these across various reservoirs.
The development project targets 123 million barrels of 2P reserves (management estimates), with potential additional resources from other reservoirs to be appraised along the development.
BW Energy acquired 100% ownership in Maromba in 2019 for a total of $115 million, of which USD 85 million remains to be paid to the sellers at predefined milestones.
Magma Oil holds a 5% back-in right in the Maromba licence which is expected to be executed upon first oil.
BW Energy is following all the steps of the approval process with the Brazilian O&G Regulator (ANP) and with the Environmental Agency (IBAMA). The company will now proceed with contracting of long-lead items and services, as well as finalizing the financing agreements.
