14th Exploration Round and 3rd Production Sharing (Pre-Salt) Round in 2017
The Brazilian Government has recently confirmed the blocks to be offered in the 14th Exploration Round and proposed areas for the 3rd Production Sharing (Pre-Salt) Round in 2017. Four large attractive areas have been earmarked for this Production Sharing Round, where carbonate reservoirs are expected and large structural highs present. Further Pre-Salt Rounds are planned for 2018 and 2019.
The Round 14 offshore blocks are situated in the Pelotas, Santos, Campos, Espírito-Santo and Sergipe-Alagoas Basins. The Santos blocks are mainly located in the shelfal area, and several oil fields have recently been discovered nearby. The Pelotas blocks are frontier terrain with no wells drilled in this part of the basin. All the other deepwater(>2,000m) blocks are located downdip from major oilfields, where turbidite sandstone reservoirs can be expected in potential stratigraphic and structural traps.
The government has reduced the local exploration cost content to 50%, and Petrobras no longer has an exclusive right to participate in the Pre-Salt blocks. These highly significant legislative changes and the attractive array of offered blocks will surely lead to a resurgence in Brazilian exploration in the next three years.
