Brazilian oil company Petrobras has concluded the drilling and appraisal of the seventh well in the Libra block, located in the pre-salt layer of the Santos Basin.
The new well has discovered Libra’s largest net pay to date, with 410 meters of thickness, Petrobras said. This column overcomes the latest discovery (301 meters), announced in March of this year.
This well, located in the northeast section of the block 180 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, has confirmed the discovery of good-quality oil (27º API) in highly productive reservoirs.
The well, denominated 3-BRSA-1339A-RJS (3-RJS-742A) and informally known as NW2, is 10.3 km to the south of the 2-ANP-2A-RJS discovery well. This drilling is part of the firm commitment in the 2-ANP-2A-RJS Discovery Appraisal Plan (PAD) approved by the ANP on February 26, 2016.
Up to now, seven wells have been concluded in the Libra block (six by the Libra Consortium) and the eighth (3-RJS-743A), also in the northeast of the block, is currently being drilled.
Located in the Santos Basin, at a distance of 183 kilometers off the city of Rio de Janeiro coast, Libra has 1,500 square kilometers, slightly bigger than the whole city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP), the estimated recoverable volume of oil and gas in Libra ranges from 8 to 12 billion of barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
The Libra Consortium comprises Petrobras (the operator, with 40%), Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%) and the production sharing agreement is managed by Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A. (PPSA).