Seacrest, backed by Mercuria Energy, plans to drill hundreds of new wells in Brazil, aiming to increase its production nearly three times.
The company, which recently bought fields in Espírito Santo from Petrobras, intends to drill 300 wells in the next five years, said president Scott Aitken.
The explorer also wants to recover 200 wells abandoned by Petrobras, he said.
Seacrest is among small oil companies looking to exploit an exploration boom in Brazil.
After OPEC and the US, the country is expected to increase production by the most in 2026.
As of 2019, Petrobras has sold more than 100 fields to about a dozen smaller companies, which pledge to deliver substantial increases in production from wells no longer of interest to the state-owned company.
Seacrest, which went public in Oslo, Norway in February last year, bought the Polo Norte Capixaba from Petrobras, adjacent to the Polo Cricaré, acquired in 2021.
“There are already more than a thousand wells drilled in these fields, so a huge amount of knowledge,” Aitken said in an interview.
“It’s a very low-risk drilling program,” he said, citing the “historical and shallow nature of the wells.”
Seacrest, of which Mercuria owns nearly 30%, plans to increase production to 21,000 barrels per day in 2025, up from the 7,650 bpd it pumped in April.
Currently, the company has about 300 wells in production and a program to restore neglected wells.
“Our development plan is to restore wells to production where Petrobras has not focused on repair or maintenance,” Aitken said.
“We have 200 wells that we are bringing back into production.”
With information from Bloomberg
News Brazil, English news Brazil, Brazilian oil and gas, Seacress