Seismic activity is picking up pace off Brazil, as companies try to take advantage of a growing number of licensing rounds scheduled for the next few years, writes Fabio Palmigiani.

Players including TGS, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and CGG have so far this year submitted environmental plans to regulator Ibama requesting to shoot a total of eight seismic surveys across the Brazilian coast, according to documents obtained by Upstream.

TGS alone filed five such plans in an effort to secure authorisation to map the country’s offshore basins ahead of future bid rounds.

The company intends to shoot a multi-client 3D seismic programme in the Camamu-Almada basin starting in April 2020 covering an area of about 14,495 square kilometres and where four exploration blocks will be offered to investors next month in the 16th licensing round.

TGS is also eyeing 3D campaigns in the northern equatorial margin to start next March, including one covering 20,630 square kilometres in the Para-Maranhao basin and another spread across 12,390 square kilometres in the environmentally-sensitive Foz do Amazonas basin.

Also on the horizon is a proprietary 3D seismic survey in the Espirito Santo basin in an area of about 6600 square kilometres where China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Spain’s Repsol acquired blocks ES-M-667 and ES-M-592, respectively, a couple of years ago.

The programme is expected to last six months, starting in December 2019, using the seismic vessel Hai Yang Shi You 721.

TGS is also applying to obtain a licence to acquire 2D seismic data in the Pelotas basin in southern Brazil in June 2020 with the BGP Pioneer vessel.

As for PGS, the company is in the process of licensing a pair of multi-client 3D seismic campaigns in the Sergipe-Alagoas basin, where US supermajor ExxonMobil operates six deep-water exploration blocks.

The so-called Pirambu-NE and Pirambu-SW projects will cover 11,270 square kilometres and 8530 square kilometres, respectively, with work set to begin next year with a Ramform-class vessel.

CGG is proposing a giant 3D seismic survey over 45,240 square kilometres due to take place in January 2020 in the prolific Santos basin.

Nicknamed Antares, the tenth phase of its Santos programme will encompass pre-salt areas in the southern section of the basin such as Bumerangue, Esmeralda, Ametista and Tupinamba that will be auctioned from 2019 to 2021.

Weekly

Seismic activity is picking up pace