Brazil Petrobras: Up To Four New Drill Rigs In 2nd Half -Estado
June 19 2009 - 4:47PM
Dow Jones News
Brazilian state-run energy giant Petrobras (PBR) expects to
bring up to four more drilling rigs to prospect in the offshore
Santos Basin in the second half of the year.
The ultra-deepwater rigs will be used to "attack" areas in the
subsalt region in the Santos Basin, Petrobras' Mario Carminatti
told the local Estado news agency. The Santos Basin is home to the
Tupi field, the Western Hemisphere's largest oil discovery in more
than 30 years.
The rigs will be used to complete studies of the Tupi, as well
as other subsalt drill targets, Petrobras' executive manager for
exploration said.
"We have other areas of interest in the Santos Basin, all in the
subsalt," Carminatti added.
Tupi is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of between 5
billion and 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent. It's located in
the BM-S-11 block, part of a cluster of exploration blocks loaded
with oil prospects hidden more than 7,000 meters under water,
shifting salt and rock.
Carminatti's comments followed the announcement earlier Friday
that Petrobras had reached a deal with Exxon Mobil (XOM) and
Norwegian driller Seadrill (SDRL.OS) to take over control of
Seadrill's West Polaris rig.
The West Polaris was drilling for Exxon in the BM-S-22 block,
site of the Azulao and Guarani prospects.
Similar deals could be reached with other foreign oil majors
with drilling rigs operating offshore Brazil, Carminatti said. The
idea is to utilize downtime between contracts to squeeze in some
drilling.
"This was already done with Repsol (REP), with Anadarko (APC)
and now with Exxon," Carminatti said.
-By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-21-2586-6085;
jeff.fick@dowjones.com