WorldOil

What's new in exploration

Petrobras recently announced the discovery of three super-giant oil fields in Brazil’s offshore Santos Basin. The company confirmed its Tupi discovery on Block BM-S-11 (Fig. 1) on November 8, 2007 and stated that the field has probable recoverable reserves between 5 and 8 billion bbl of light oil. It now appears that another, possibly much larger, oil field called Carioca-Sugar Loaf has been discovered about 50 mi west of Tupi. The Carioca discovery well (1-SPS-050) was spudded in April 2007 on Block BM-S-9. The well reached a 21,876-ft TD in the pre-salt Aptian Guaratiba Formation in July 2007. It tested 2,900 bpd of 27°API oil and 2 MMcfgd. A third discovery, the Jupter well, was announced on January 21. Two other subsalt tests were drilled to the west of Carioca during the fourth quarter of 2007.