Pre-salt discoveries continue in Brazil
Potential for super-giant fields remains to be confirmed in ultra deepwater
Peter Howard Wertheim, Contributing Editor
Deep under the Atlantic Ocean, Brazil’s state-controlled Petrobras has made what could prove to be the largest oil discovery in 30 years, and one that would propel the already prospering country into the major league of oil exporters.
The head of Brazil’s upstream regulatory body National Petroleum and Biofuels Agency (ANP), Haroldo Lima, said in April that the find in the Carioca exploration area could contain 33 Bboe, which would make it the world’s fourth-largest field. Lima did not say whether his unofficial estimate was of recoverable reserves or in-place resources and Petrobras did not comment.
Brazil Energy Minister Edison Lobão was quoted as saying on São Paulo’s Estado newswire that he would neither confirm nor deny Lima’s statements. However, he cautioned that any announcement on the extension of oil fields should only be made once the government is certain about the data.
For context, current Brazilian crude oil proven reserves are at 14.4 Bbbl.
Outstanding sequence of discoveries
“This is one of the most impressive oil finds globally in terms of scale,” says David Riedel of New York-based Riedel Research Inc. The deepwater discovery, coming after a similar find announced last year by Petrobras, suggests that the world still has major pools of oil to be found.
For Brazilian analysts, it also casts new doubts on peak oil theory, which postulates that world oil demand will soon outpace supply.
Riedel says uncertainty remains regarding the size of the Carioca discovery on BM-S-9 block, which lays under 2 km (6,562 ft) of water, plus many more kilometers of sand, hard rock, and another 2 km of salt. The exploration area, also called Carioca-Sugar Loaf, is 275 km (171 mi) off the coast of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
“Petrobras is very good at deepwater drilling but this is going to be very complicated stuff to get out of the ground,” he adds.
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Click here to enlarge image
Location map of the exploration blocks in Santos basin showing the recent giant and super-giant pre-salt oil and gas discoveries.
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Besides affirming that there is no technical barrier to explore under the salt layer, Guilherme Estrella, Petrobras’ E&P director, argues that there must be change in the sector’s regulations because the pre-salt exploration can be seen as low risk exploration activity. According to Petrobras, the discovery of the blockbuster natural gas and condensate field in the Jupiter area in the Santos basin reinforces the notion that there is practically no exploratory risk in the pre-salt layer.
“Of the 15 wells we drilled during the last two years in the pre-salt, each one of them struck oil or gas. In fact, we have been drilling in the pre-salt area since we started drilling in Campos basin,” he says. “All of the pre-salt blocks achieved exploratory success, something that confirms the region’s high prospectivity.”
Estrella, a geologist, is former head of Cenpes, Petrobras’ R&D center.
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Volume 68 Issue 7
July 2008
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