New Pre-Salt discovery at the Marlim Field

New Wave Media

This new pre-salt discovery in the Campos Basin, highlights the potential for new discoveries in both the pre and post salt layers of this mature basin, which up to now has been the main O&G producer in Brazil and until recently was considered by many as not having much more to give in terms of new reservoirs.

Petrobras announced the discovery of a new accumulation of light oil (29o API) in the pre-salt layer of the Campos Basin, in water depths of 648 meters at the Marlim field.

Marlim is located in the north-eastern part of Campos Basin, in water depths ranging from 648m to 1,050m. It has some 102 production wells and 50 injection wells. Over 80km of rigid pipelines and 400km of flexible lines have been laid on the field.

The new discovery was the result of the drilling of the exploratory prospect known as Brava, performed by means of well 6-MRL-199D-RJS, located 170 km away from the city of Macaé, state of Rio de Janeiro.

The accumulation discovered in pre-salt carbonatic reservoirs is nestled at a depth of 4,460 meters. Drilling was made to a total depth of about 5,000 meters to reach the reservoir, of which 1,000 meters of salt. Preliminary estimates indicate potential recoverable volumes at about 380 million barrels of oil equivalent there. Tests will be made to assess the productivity of these reservoirs.

The discovery is located in the area near the installed infrastructure in the Marlim and Voador fields, and the discovery well is located 4.5 km from the platform P-27, a fact that should not only facilitate field development, but also can reduce CAPEX.

The Marlim field will soon host the world's first system for deepwater subsea separation of heavy oil and water, including reinjection of water to boost production in this mature field development.

FMC is the contractor at the Marlim field. The subsea separation system is being jointly engineered between FMC’s operations in Brazil, Norway and the Netherlands.  Final manufacturing and integration activities will be performed at the company’s Rio de Janeiro facility, with deliveries projected to begin in 2011.

The investments that have been made in subsea equipment installation at the Marlim field are massive and over 600 meters deep is considered deepwater. It´s good news indeed that the pre-salt layer there is showing good results as this increases the probability of new pre-salt   reservoir discoveries in the area and also shows us the magnitude and importance of the pre-salt to the future of the Brazilian O&G market. Things are definitely looking good.

 

Claudio Paschoa