New Deepwater Discoveries in Brazil

Petrobras, Brazil´s National operator hás recently disclosed new local and international O&G discoveries. The discoveries in Brazil are all in deepwater. In the Espírito Santo Basin the hydrocarbon accumulations were found in the Cretaceous reservoirs of a well known as Brigadeiro, down at 1,900 meters and located within the BM-ES-23 concession area in Block ES-M-525, 115 km off the coast of the State of Espírito Santo in southeast Brazil.

This new deepwaterdiscovery at the very promising Espirito Santo Basin, was confirmed through wireline logging and fluid sampling, in t reservoirs located at around 4,200 meters.
Petrobras is the operator of block BM-ES-23 (65%), which is also composed of Shell Brasil Petróleo (20%) and Inpex Petróleo Santos (15%). Although this is not a pre-salt reservoir, it raises expectations for new deepwater pre-salt finds at this Basin.

In North Brazil at the BM-PA-MA3 Block in the Pará-Maranhão Basin, Petrobras and its new partner Sinopec have found an important reservoir at 2,060 meters. Although Petrobras had already discovered serious indications of hydrocarbons in this same block last March, this new discovery points to the probable existence of a previously unknown O&G frontier in this area. It was also the first discovery in the Block since Chinese operator Sinopec joined in the partnership with a 20% share, which obviously is turning out to be a good deal for the Chinese investor. This same area, located in the equatorial margin of the country, close to where the Amazon river meets the sea, contains other interesting blocks, which will be on offer during ANP´s 11 bidding round scheduled to take place in the second semester of this year. This new discovery should help raise greater interest from local and foreign investors in this exploration area.

Another important aspect of these new discoveries is that it shows that Petrobras is not only maintaining its commitment to aggressive deepwater exploration but also continues to systematically redraw the map of potential O&G provinces in Brazil. It is interesting to note that a deepwater discovery was made by Repsol in an unexplored area between the Campos and Santos Basins, where many specialists believe that important new pre-salt reservoirs will also be uncovered.

Claudio Paschoa