Brazilian Pre-salt Discoveries Raise Expectations for New Discoveries in WA

Statoil recently increased the estimates for their Campos Basin pre-salt O&G discoveries up to a substantial total of 1.24 billion barrels boe. Consequently Statoil has also increased its optimism for the geologically similar plays it has in Angola. Not only are the cross ocean plays geologically similar but they are also located along the same longitude.

Both pre-salt geological formations off the Brazilian and West African coasts have their origins in common, something that goes back around 120 million years ago, when ancient Gondwana split into what is now known as South America and Africa. The pre-salt reservoirs on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are expected to contain large quantities of light oil.

Looking the other way, new pre-salt discoveries in Ghana and the Ivory Coast may indicate that prospective pre-salt reservoirs in the Brazilian northeast and north, which line up nicely with Gabon, Nigeria and the two other countries mentioned above.

What we have is a definite possibility the major new oil discoveries can be expected to continue to be discovered in both sides of the Atlantic in the coming years and these will most probably have a substantial effect on the not only global O&G reserves but also on the deepwater O&G market and all of its equipment and service suppliers.

A continuous increase in demand for deepwater equipment can be considered a certainty and more specialized companies will definitely be heading to both sides of the ocean in order to compete for major contracts.

This will also have a strong positive impact on the drillship and FPSO markets, along with an increase on demand for PSVs and other supply vessels.

What may eventually become a problem is the need for increased safety measures both in drilling and production on both sides of the Atlantic as the risks involved must be considered major.

Claudio Paschoa