By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 22 -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Maersk Oil & Gas AS plan next year to drill the first exploration well on the BMS-31 Block in the Santos basin off Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Shell, the block's operator and majority stake holder, is conducting seismic studies on this and on its other Brazilian blocks.
John Haney, Shell's vice-president of Brazilian E&P, said the company also plans in October to drill an appraisal well on the BS-4 Block in the same basin. The company has until yearend to declare this block commercial or return it to Brazil's National Petroleum Agency.
The block has reserves of 300 million bbl of very heavy crude. Shell holds a 40% operating stake.
In the Campos basin at Shell's 50%-held BC-10 Block, production of 17-24° gravity oil, reportedly, could start in late 2007 or early 2008. BC-10 was declared commercial in December 2005 and has a potential to produce about 100,000 b/d of oil from oil reserves of 400 million bbl (OGJ Online, Jan. 23, 2006).
