New Pre-salt Discovery has 4,5 billion barrels of Recoverable Light Oil

New Wave Media

This new ANP discovery is the 2nd largest pre-salt discovery to date in Brazil and highlights the excellent potential of the Brazilian pre-salt.

The ultra deepwater well (2-ANP-1-RJS ) was drilled at an area which has been named Franco, it lies 2.189 meters deep and the 4,5 billion barrels of light oil are of around 30º API. The well is located 195km from Rio de Janeiro and 41 km from the Iara pre-salt field, which has a recoverable oil potential of 3 to 4 billion barrels. Both are located at the Santos Basin. The Tupi field, also at the Santos Basin is still the largest discovery to date in Brazil, will a recoverable oil potential of 5 to 8 billion barrels.

This is the 2 largest discovery in Brazil to date, the volume of oil represents 32% of the country´s proven oil reserves, which are pegged at 14,2 billion barrels. The new well was drilled in a prospect with an area of around 400 kmand detected a layer with a width of 272m containing hydrocarbons. 

The new well is a bit more than half the distance from shore than the Tupi field wells, thereby decreasing logistics problems associated to its development, which should also decrease its development CAPEX. This new discovery also increases expectations that the potential of pre-salt reservoirs located at the Santos Basin are truly extraordinary and that not only are more big reservoir (over 1 billion barrels) discoveries likely in the near future but also that there is still the possibility of discovering a reservoir even larger than Tupi, something that was considered unlikely.

The ANP (National Petroleum Agency) is in charge of the drilling of this well, although the drilling is done by Petrobras, using its drilling resources. ANP has already started drilling a second well (2-ANP-A-RJS) 32km northeast of the first well at an area named Libra. The drilling in being done by the Diamond Offshore drillship, Ocean Clipper.

These wells are all being drilled by Petrobras, which was authorized by ANP to commence the drilling last December. Since the wells are located in an area not included in previous bidding rounds, the area and the discoveries actually belong to the Brazilian government, which will decide what to do with the reserves. There is the possibility that the oil in this well will be used by ANP to capitalize Petrobras, however, this will only be decided after discussions and voting by the national congress. According to the onerous concession contract, Petrobras will receive 5 billion barrels from specific pre-salt areas not included in the bidding rounds but not necessarily from this new area.

With this new discovery, the estimates for pre-salt reserves will grow from between 10.5 to 16.5 billion barrels to between 15 to 21 billion barrels. It is important to remember that the market estimate is for the Brazilian pre-salt discoveries to ultimately reach a volume of 80 billion barrels, so there is still a ways to go.

 

Claudio Paschoa

Photo - C. Paschoa