The OGX Exploratory Campaign Maintains Its High Success Rate

New Wave Media

OGX maintains its high success in wells drilled in the southern Campos Basin.

OGX Petróleo e Gás Participações S.A., the largest Brazilian private sector oil and gas company in terms of offshore exploratory acreage, announced today that it has completed the drilling of well 1-OGX-5-RJS, located in block BM-C-43, in the shallow waters of the southern part of the Campos Basin. OGX holds a 100% working interest in this block.

The well OGX-5 was drilled to a depth of 4,100 meters, resulting in the detection of hydrocarbons in carbonate reservoirs in the Albian and Aptian sections. Cable tests performed after the conclusion of drilling also identified an oil-bearing column in the Maastrichtian section, from which oil samples were collected.

Based on the final well information combined with the 3D seismic data interpretation, OGX estimates recoverable oil volume for the Maastrichtian section between 30 and 90 million barrels. Volume estimates for the Albian and Aptian reservoirs will be provided following the drilling of additional wells.

Ocean Ambassador, the rig employed at OGX-5, has been  mobilized to the next location, a directional exploratory well located near OGX’s Vesúvio prospect, with the objectives of testing new targets and further delineating the previously announced Vesúvio discovery. The drilling of this next well, located in the BM-C-41, shallow waters of the southern part of the Campos Basin started in early March.

OGX Petróleo e Gás Participações S.A.,  announced the conclusion of drilling of the well 1-MRK-2B-SPS, located in the BM-S-29 block, in the shallow waters of the Santos basin. The block is part of a concession in which OGX holds a 65% working interest, and operator Maersk Oil controls 35%. Following the conclusion of drilling, the operator Maersk Oil filed a Discovery Appraisal Plan with the Brazilian Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (“ANP”).

The well is located in the BM-S-29 block and is situated approximately 130 kilometers off the coast of the state of São Paulo at a water depth of approximately 100 meters.

OGX Petróleo e Gás Participações S.A., announced that it has identified an oil-bearing interval in the Albian section of well 1-OGX-6-RJS, located in the BM-C-41 block, in the shallow waters of the southern part of the Campos Basin. OGX holds a 100% working interest in this block.

So far an oil column of about 70 meters with approximately 38 meters of net pay was encountered in carbonate reservoirs in the Albian section. Thermobaric effects associated with volcanism in the area contributed to optimize the permo-porosity properties of the reservoirs. The drilling in the Albian section is still in progress and the well OGX-6 will be drilled up to a final depth of approximately 3,600 meters.

More than 50 meters of reservoir rock cores have been collected at this well in order to analyze characteristics of the reservoirs and to aid in the appraisal and development of future projects. These sample cores and logs indicate a strong correlation between the Albian reservoirs of OGX-6 (Etna), OGX-3 (Waimea), and OGX-2 (Pipeline). The Etna prospect is located 8.5 km to the northeast of the Waimea prospect and is structurally indicates 400 meters above the Waimea reservoir.

"Our review of this data indicates that these accumulations may be connected and that the recently discovered oil province may, in fact, extend to the north of the BM-C-41 block, confirming its very significant petrolific potential,” commented Mr. Paulo Mendonça, OGX's General Executive Officer. “New data will be collected and new wells will be drilled in order for us to better map the prospects identified in this province” added Mr. Mendonça.

The OGX-6 well is located in the BM-C-41 block and is situated approximately 82 kilometers off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro at a water depth of approximately 137 meters. The rig Ocean Quest, provided by Diamond Offshore, initiated drilling activities on February 2, 2010.

The Brazilian oil and gas company, responsible for the largest private exploratory campaign in Brazil, announced on March 12th, that it has identified an oil-bearing interval in the Aptian section of well 1-OGX-6-RJS, located in the BM-C-41 block, in the shallow waters of the southern part of the Campos Basin where it holds a 100% working interest in this block.
An oil column of about 81 meters with approximately 17 meters of net pay was encountered in carbonate reservoirs in the Aptian section. The well OGX-6 is in its final phase of drilling and will target a final depth of approximately 3,600 meters.
In addition to the information released on March 5th about the albian section of this same well, OGX informs that the total oil column and net pay identified in this section have been increased, respectively, to approximately: 165 from 70 meters and 74 from 38 meters.
This is very good news indeed, specially for subsea equipment manufacturers and suppliers as sources close to the company say that OGX intends to use the latest subsea technology in these shallow water plays in order to reduce opex and employ a more efficient O&G extraction system instead of traditional shallow water development methods. The company already has several wellheads on order with VectoGray and is studiing subsea systems in order to award new contracts for subsea systems and support equipment from selected manufacturers.

 

Claudio Paschoa

Photo courtesy of GE Subsea