Brazil: Petrobras New Well Confirms Good Quality Oil in Iara, Santos Basin

Petrobras announces that it has completed the drilling of extension exploratory well 3-BRSA-891A-RJS (3-RJS-682A) located in the Iara Evaluation Plan, in the Santos Basin pre-salt. At a water depth of 2,279m, the well is approximately 230 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro and 8 km from the exploration discovery well.

The drilling of the well confirmed the reservoir’s good oil quality (28º API) and reinforced the potential for recoverable light oil and natural gas in the deposit, which the company estimates to be between 3 to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Informally known as Iara Horst, the well showed better features of the reservoir than those found in the 1-BRSA-618-RJS (1-RJS-656) discovery well.

The Iara Evaluation Plan is located is an area remaining of block BM-S-11, where the marketability of the giant field Cernambi and of the supergiant Lula was recently declared.

Formation tests will need to be done to assess the reservoir’s productivity. The consortium operated by Petrobras (65%), in partnership with BG Group (25%) and Galp Energia (10%), will give continuity to the activities provided by the Evaluation Plan approved by the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP).

[mappress]

Source:Petrobras, March  2, 2011; Image: