Petrobras Finds 5 Bln Barrels of Oil in Santos Basin

Petrobras informed that it has completed drilling the last exploratory well in the areas of the Transfer of Rights agreement, in the Santos Basin pre-salt.

The well 4-BRSA1226-RJS (4-RJS-728), the third drilled in the block referred to as Entorno de Iara, has confirmed the discovery of good quality oil in the pre-salt reservoirs.

Known as Entorno de Iara 3, the well is located at a water depth of 2,244 meters, some 241 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

The well confirmed the discovery of good quality oil (27º API) in carbonate reservoirs of excellent quality situated below the salt layer starting at a depth of 5,548 meters, and it reached the total depth of 5,875 meters.

With the completion of this well, Petrobras has complied with the exploratory drilling activities provided for in the Mandatory Exploratory Plan (PEO). Sixteen exploratory wells were drilled among the six areas of the Transfer of Rights with a 100% success rate.

Data obtained so far have allowed to confirm the existence of the totality of the volume contracted by Petrobras with the Brazilian Federal Government, which is 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Transfer of Rights Agreement

At the end of last year, Petrobras had already declared the commerciality of part of the volume contracted related to Franco area (currently Búzios field) with 3.058 billion boe and Tupi sul area (currently Sul de Lula field) with 128 million boe.

The other volumes that make up the total of 5 billion boe are from areas of the Transfer of Rights, which will have their declarations of commerciality sent to Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP) by the end of 2014.

After the declarations of commerciality, the formal process of reviewing the Transfer of Rights agreement begins, which will be performed on a block per block basis, taking into consideration the technical and economic assumptions of each area. The reviewing process for the blocks of Franco (Búzios field) and Sul de Tupi (Sul de Lula Field) are already in progress.