en.Wedoany.com Reported - The ANP (Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) and Petrobras signed a settlement agreement on Tuesday (7th), requiring 335 offshore wells to comply with the Technical Regulation for Well Integrity Management Systems. The signing ceremony took place at the headquarters of the Brazilian Federal Attorney General's Office (AGU) in Brasília.
According to the agreement's timeline, the implementation of related measures must be completed by December 31, 2030. Interventions will be carried out on an annual and semi-annual basis, prioritizing wells classified as highest risk to allow for continuous progress tracking.
As consideration for the relaxed regulatory deadlines, Petrobras will pay R$300 million to the ANP. Of this amount, R$105 million must be paid within 30 days after the final signing of the agreement, and the remaining R$195 million will be paid in 48 monthly installments, adjusted according to the Selic rate.
In addition to financial compensation and well remediation, the agreement stipulates a series of technical and institutional commitments. Petrobras must provide the ANP with geochemical analysis results of oil samples from fields it has operated since 1974, as well as information related to its experience in oil spill investigations.
The agreement also guarantees the ANP access for 20 years to an international private database containing analytical data on oil, rocks, and formation water from multiple sedimentary basins. According to the agency, this information will help improve the identification of oil sources in spill events and strengthen oversight and accident response activities.
The signing of this agreement ends the regulatory dispute over whether wells in offshore oil and gas fields that have been temporarily abandoned and unmonitored should be permanently abandoned or monitored. Under the agreement, Petrobras is responsible for remediating the 335 wells covered, including 76 wells that have been transferred to other companies for operation.
The mediation process, conducted within the framework of the Federal Public Administration Mediation and Conciliation Committee (CCAF) under the AGU, began in June 2021. After previous direct attempts between the ANP and Petrobras to reach an agreement failed, the ANP formally joined in August of the same year. Negotiations involved the technical and legal teams of the three institutions and lasted approximately five years.
According to the agreement's terms, Petrobras must meet minimum remediation targets every six months based on well risk classification and submit periodic reports to the ANP detailing completed work, planned interventions, results of monitoring and inspection activities, and environmental license status. Compliance with the timeline will be tracked by comparing the number of wells planned for remediation against those actually remediated.
A well will be considered remediated under the following conditions: it is permanently abandoned (with clearance applied where applicable), it is temporarily abandoned and monitored as required, or it is repurposed for field production and begins monitoring.
