New O&G Province in South Campos Basin a Reality

Tests on a number of recently discovered adjacent wells, along with the first production well at Waimea Horizontal, support OXS´s claim that a new shallow water O&G province has been discovered at Block BM-C-41 in the southern Campos Basin.

It is very significant when an acclaimed Geologist such as Paulo Mendonça, General Manager (Director) of OGX, comments that “This is one of the best production tests I have ever seen in my life”. Mr. Mendonça worked for decades in Petrobras and actively participated in ALL the major hydrocarbon reservoir discoveries made by Petrobras in Brazil, including the early Campos Basin boom, along with spearheading discoveries at the Espirito Santo and Santos Basins. That´s just to name the most known Basins he helped discover and develop, because there are quite a few more Basins involved.

There is no real need at this point to go into final recoverable oil figures, as that would be hard to ascertain at this point but if the total potential is anywhere along the 3.6 bboe, originally predicted, they that would be awesome. It may swing for more or less than that in the end, but it´s still a major achievement. Shallow water drilling is way cheaper than deep water drilling to begin with and the plays are basically all within a hundred km from the coast, which simplifies logistic tremendously. In term of safety, shallow water drilling normally is less complex and demanding than deep water efforts but there definitely are risks, as there always will be when drilling for oil. At least shallow water drilling is something more easily understood after so many years of E&P.

The good side is that OGX is a new O&G player with different values than the old players and also a supposedly, very safety and environmentally conscious operation.  Then again, all O&G players claim to be very safety and environmentally conscious operations. In the end only time will tell.

Tests on a number of recently discovered adjacent wells, along with the first production well at Waimea Horizontal, support OXS´s claim that a new shallow water O&G province has been discovered at Block BM-C-41 in the southern Campos Basin.

It is very significant when an acclaimed Geologist such as Paulo Mendonça, General Manager (Director) of OGX, comments that “This is one of the best production tests I have ever seen in my life”. Mr. Mendonça worked for decades in Petrobras and actively participated in ALL the major hydrocarbon reservoir discoveries made by Petrobras in Brazil, including the early Campos Basin boom, along with spearheading discoveries at the Espirito Santo and Santos Basins. That´s just to name the most known Basins in Brazil that he helped uncork and develop, because there are quite a few more Basins involved.

There is no real need at this point to go into final recoverable oil figures, as that would be hard to ascertain at this point but if the total potential is anywhere along the 3.6 bboe, originally predicted, they that would be awesome. It may swing for more or less than that in the end, but it´s still a major achievement. Shallow water drilling is way cheaper than deep water drilling to begin with and the plays are basically all within a hundred km from the coast, which simplifies logistic tremendously. In term of safety, shallow water drilling normally is less complex and demanding than deep water efforts but there definitely are risks, as there always will be when drilling for oil. At least shallow water drilling is something more easily understood after so many years of E&P.

The good side is that OGX is a new O&G player with different values than the old players and also a supposedly, very safety and environmentally conscious operation.  Then again, all O&G players claim to be very safety and environmentally conscious operations. In the end only time will tell.

Claudio Paschoa

Part of the OGX Release concerning Waimea and the New O&G Province:

OGX concluded the drilling of the horizontal well 9-OGX-26HP-RJS (Waimea Horizontal) and, through a drill-stem test (DST), has identified excellent production index (PI) of 100m³/day/kgf/cm², similar to results obtained in the best wells in the country. Currently, the well is being equipped to perform an extended well test (EWT) which is expected to register oil flowrate of up to 20,000 barrels per day, and a higher flow rate during its definitive development phase. This result surpassed initial expectations related to the Waimea accumulation and provides a solid foundation for the initiation of OGX’s production phase. This well is located in the BM-C-41 block in the Campos basin and will be connected to the FPSO (Floating Production Storage & Offloading) OSX-1 during the EWT, which will begin in the middle of 2011.

“The result obtained in the drilling of this well represents a milestone in the Company’s history. The use of horizontal drilling technology in the well confirmed very high production indexes in the carbonate reservoirs in the southern Campos basin, proving that we do have, in fact, before us an extraordinary petrolific province,” commented Paulo Mendonça, General Director of OGX. “This is one of the best production tests I have ever seen in my life”, added Mr. Mendonça.

The drilling of the horizontal well 9-OGX-26HP-RJS utilized state-of-the-art technology. OGX’s technical team was responsible for implementing an approach which called for the drilling of a directional well to a depth of 3,746 meters in order to enable a horizontal entrance into the targeted reservoir. The successful execution of this approach resulted in a well with more than 1,000 meters of horizontal extension in the carbonate reservoirs of the Albian section of the Waimea accumulation, which was originally discovered through the drilling of the 1-OGX-3-RJS well on December 18, 2009.
Following the conclusion of the drilling process, a drill-stem test was performed, which confirmed production potential of 40,000 barrels per day of oil with gravity of approximately 20°API. A complex process of selective acidification was used in eight well intervals, permitting better stimulation of the more than 1,000 meters of the well’s extension, thereby maximizing the oil flow.
In addition to the results, further information was collected, such as features of the reservoir rock and of the fluids, which will be analyzed by OGX’s technical team in the coming months. These interpretations, along with the information from the EWT will permit a better understanding of the accumulation and will assist in the preparation of the development plan.