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Petrobras looks likely to confirm huge volumes in sub-salt play


Santos basin set for reserves surge


Gareth Chetwynd

Petrobras seems increasingly confident about confirming the presence of huge new reserves in sub-salt horizons in Brazil's Santos basin.

The government-controlled company is drilling an appraisal well on the Tupi prospect and is close to concluding a new wildcat on the Carioca prospect.

Information remains tight ahead of Brazil's November licensing round, but talk has been circulating among Brazilian industry sources suggesting that both wells are detecting more hydrocarbons.

In the case of Tupi, on Block BM-S-11, the discovery well had already stirred up intense excitement - not least among block partners BG Group and Petrogal.

Petrobras gave some credence to the latest rumours this week when Credit Suisse released an analysts' report quoting Petrobras upstream asset manager Eduardo Molinar as saying that the Tupi South appraisal well has successfully detected more accumulations of gas and light oil.

The Tupi discovery, located at depths of more than 5000 metres, is seen as extremely significant, and BG described a potential 1.7 billion to 10 billion barrels of hydrocarbons in place during a 2006 presentation.

The Brazilian licensing round due for November includes several blocks in the vicinity of BM-S-11 and BM-S-9, where Carioca is being drilled in partnership with BG and Repsol YPF. This well is scheduled to go to a total depth of up to 7500 metres.

The Tupi South prospect was set to go to a total depth of 5200 metres, while another wildcat planned on the same block will test a possibly contiguous prospect called Iracema to a depth of more than 6200 metres.

Petrobras recently created a research and development programme dedicated to reducing costs and tackling potential obstacles in its quest to tap new reserves from the deep sub-salt horizons.

""ENI's Brazilian subsidiary is drilling a well on Santos basin Block BM-S-4 to appraise the Belmonte discovery, according to Brazilian industry sources.

The well is being drilled by the semi-submersible Pride South Atlantic, but sources said Eni was not yet planning to carry out flow tests in the area.

The well is the fourth to be drilled on a block that was a star of Brazil's inaugural licensing round in 1999, when Eni paid about $77 million for an area still considered highly risky by most companies.

Eni is set to step up its drilling in Brazil after booking the intermediate-depth semisub Celtic Sea through July 2008.


Thursday, 27 September, 2007, 11:59 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 27 September, 2007, 12:03 GMT

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