MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras confirms pre-salt oil reservoir of light oil and gas

Petrobras announced this week that the completion of the Iara well drilling (which first found oil in August 2007) confirmed the discovery of light oil in the Santos basin pre-salt reservoir with a recoverable volume estimated in 3 to 4 billion barrels of light oil and natural gas.

"The quality and porous thickness of the oil-bearing reservoirs proved to be even better than the initial expectations. The new discovery was confirmed by a cable test and revealed the existence of light oil, with specific gravity between 26° and 30° API, in an area of some 300 square kilometers that has been very well defined seismically", said Petrobras in an official release. Petrobras says that the set of data collected, in association with the knowledge that has already been acquired for the pre-salt reservoirs enabled to calculate the estimated recoverable volume. Block BM-S-11 where the drilling has taken place is composed of two exploratory areas. In one of them, the first well, 1-BRSA-369A-RJS (1-RJS-628A), known as Tupi, was drilled and resulted in the discovery announced on June 11 2006, with an estimated recoverable volume of 5 to 8 billion barrels of light oil and natural gas, the Assessment Plan for which is currently in execution. The Iara well, 1-BRSA-618-RJS (1-RJS-656), is in an area north of Tupi, some 230 kilometers off the coast of the city of Rio de Janeiro and at 2.230 meters from the water line. The final depth of the drilling was 6,080 meterss. The consortium exploring the Iara well in block BM-S-11 in ultradeep Santos basin waters is made up of Petrobras (operator 65%), British Gas Group (25%) and Galp Energia (Porutgal) (10%). "The consortium will give continuity to the exploratory activities and to the investments in this area via a Discovery Assessment Plan to be submitted to the NPA (Brazil's energy agency), as provided for in the Concession Agreement, in order to characterize the field better". This is the second deposit of the pre-salt area of which Petrobras releases potential production data. Brazil which has proven reserves of 14 billion barrels of oil, the pre-salt reservoirs could represent an 85% increase. Non official estimates in Brazil mention the possibility of 50 to 80 billion barrels, which would have the country among the world's ten leading in reserves, but there is no Petrobras confirmation. However the Brazilian government has established a task cabinet to analyze where to invest the windfall earnings if such reserves are confirmed as well as introducing reforms to the current exploration and exploitation model.