Petrobras Discovers Major Well At Promising Offshore Oil Field

Petrobras claimed on Wednesday to have discovered its largest find at its Libra field located off Brazil’s southeast coast.

According to the state-run oil producer, the newest well (informally known as NW2) has a thickness of 410 meters, which surpasses the previous find of a 301-meter column last March.

The site could pay major dividends for Petrobras, as it’s said to contain medium oil of 27 degree API quality in highly productive reservoirs.

The NW2 well received the designation of 3-BRSA-1339A-RJS (3-RJS-742A) and is located in the northwestern section of the Libra field. It’s also situated some 10.3 kilometers to the south of the 2-ANP-2A-RJS discovery well.

The NW2 site is the seventh well drilled at Libra though an eighth drill near NW2 is currently being drilled.

The Libra block is situated in the pre-salt Santos basin some 180 kilometers away from Rio de Janeiro. It was acquired from the Brazilian government by a consortium in October 2013 after having been the lone bidder in the final auction.

Federal energy regulators ANP believe Libra contains between 8 billion barrels to 12 billion barrels of oil, and could generate $1 trillion in public revenues over a thirty-year span.

Petrobras is the main stakeholder in Libra with 40 percent control of the site, followed by Netherlands-based Shell (20 percent), France’s Total (20 percent), the China National Petroleum Corporation (10 percent), and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (10 percent). Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A., a Brazilian public firm linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, manages the production-sharing agreement.

By Erwin Cifuentes for Oilprice.com

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