PRIO has obtained approval to drill up to 14 new wells at the Frade field in Brazil’s Campos basin after Ibama amended the field’s drilling licence.
The amendment was issued by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, authorising the company to move ahead with the new drilling campaign at Frade.
The approval follows another recent regulatory step for PRIO. Ibama had already granted an operating licence for the installation of the Wahoo field production development system and for the interconnection of wells to the FPSO Valente, formerly known as Frade.
For the Wahoo project, the company’s plan included four producing wells and two injector wells. PRIO had targeted first oil between March and April 2026. The drilling permit for that six-well campaign was received last year, when the Hunter Queen rig started moving to the site.
The Frade and Wahoo developments are part of PRIO’s plan to create a production cluster through a tie-back between the two fields. A development plan for that arrangement was submitted to the National Petroleum Agency, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in December 2021.
The company had also previously confirmed receipt of an operating licence to drill wells on the Frade field in April 2022. That approval enabled the Norbe VI rig to begin the Frade revitalisation campaign and the Wahoo field development.
