By Peter Howard Wertheim
OGJ correspondent
RIO DE JANEIRO, July 15 -- Brazil's state-owned oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( Petrobras) reported that it has made a discovery off the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The 1-ESS-123 well, on Block BES-100, lies in 1,374 m of water about 60 km from shore and 80 km from that state's capital, Vitória.
The BES-100 block is one of the areas that would have to have been relinquished to the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) on Aug. 6 had no discoveries been made.
Preliminary logging confirms the occurrence of 50 m of oil-bearing sandstone at a depth of 3,784 m. Drilling will continue to 4,400 m TD, with the possibility of new discoveries at the greater depths.
This discovery, in the Espírito Santo basin, is especially significant, as it represents another substantial find outside the Campos basin, which produces about 80% of Brazil's current 1.6 million b/d oil output, said Petrobras.
Petrobras drilled well 1-ESS-121 about 10 km south of Jubarte field, which was discovered in 2002, and the area delineated at yearend 2002.
Before the 1-ESS-123 discovery, preliminary estimates of other recent finds off Espírito Santo indicated reserves of 2.1 billion bbl on Block BC-60 (OGJ Online, June 6, 2003). Petrobras said that the figure represents about 23.5% of Brazil's total reserves of 8.9 billion bbl. Petrobras owns 100% of Block BC-60.
