Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) has declared Sépia Leste in the Santos basin pre-salt area to be commercial with an estimated 130 MMboe recoverable resources, offshore Rio de Janeiro.
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Map of the Sépia field. From Petrobras. |
The oil accumulation is located northwest of the Júpiter discovery evaluation plan (PAD) in Block BM-S-24, about 250km off Rio de Janeiro’s coastline at 2165m water depth.
The Brazilian giant filed with the country’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Biofuels agency (ANP) for the commerciality on 13 November.
“During the exploration, the extension of the accumulation of the Sépia field (transfer of rights) for the Sépia Leste area was verified, characterizing to be a single oil deposit,” Petrobras said. “The Sépia field was declared commercially viable by Petrobras in September 2014 and presents reservoirs with excellent porosity and permeability characteristics and good quality oil (approximately 26ºAPI).”
Plans are being discussed amongst the BM-S-24 consortium for the unitization of the deposit comprising the Sépia and Sépia Leste fields, which would lead to a production individualization agreement (PIA). According to Petrobras, the unitization process consists of enabling, through a single project, the development and production of a single deposit, which encompasses concession areas belonging to more than one concessionaire.
Should the area be considered as a single deposit, the production of the Sépia Leste field will be handled by the same system used in the Sépia field, which is scheduled for start up in 2019.
The BM-S-24 consortium has until February 2016 to complete the appraisal of the discovery of the remaining area encompassing the Júpiter PAD.
Petrobras is the operator of the area with 80% interest, along with partner Petrogal Brasil (20%).
Petrobras’ operations are currently being affected by the oil workers’ union strike that has led to an impact in the oil output for the country, which as of this week is about 115,000 b/d.
Last week, the company confirmed that the strike caused oil production to fall by 273,000 bbl, equivalent to 13% of daily output in Brazil. The strike began on 1 November.
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