South America Archives

South America

Spatial variation in charge risk along the Guyana-Suriname margin

Kenneth Shipper, Paul Mann, CBTH Project, University of Houston and Andrew Pepper, This Is Petroleum Systems

July 9, 2026

The Guyana-Suriname Basin is a Mesozoic rifted-passive margin along the northeastern coast of South America that has emerged as one of the most prolific deepwater petroleum provinces of the past…

Before you decide to enter Venezuela…

Kevin Schofield, Katya Casey, Marel Sanchez and Juan Francisco Arminio, U3Explore

July 7, 2026

In recent months, several articles emphasising the historical, technical, and human aspects of the evolving “apertura” in Venezuela have been published in the AAPG Explorer and GEO EXPRO. In the…

Revival of South Africa’s first commercial Helium project

Mariël Reitsma

June 29, 2026

These observations prompted Renergen to apply for a natural gas exploration permit across Welkom, Virginia and Theunissen in Free State, South Africa. They soon discovered that apart from methane, the…

A Cenomanian- Turonian source rock adventure in the Pelotas Basin

Neil Hodgson, Karyna Rodriguez and Lauren Found, Searcher

June 9, 2026

Searcher and Shearwater’s 16,500 km2 3D in the Pelotas Basin, southern Brazil. Hunting for Cenomanian-Turonian source rocks in the South Atlantic Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, key risk elements…

Improving the signal-to-noise ratio in Venezuela’s oil and gas industry revival

Katya Casey - U3 Explore

May 26, 2026

One of the dominant themes in the petroleum industry in 2026 remains Venezuela and the rapid evolution of the country’s investment landscape. The year began with significant political changes and…

“Seeking the Sweet Spot in offshore Ecuador’s Sweet Shop”

Neil Hodgson, Karyna Rodriguez and Lauren Found, Searcher

April 22, 2026

Searcher use of modern processing algorithms to unleash the hidden sweetness in Ecuador’s legacy offshore seismic Setting the scene Figure 1: Offshore Ecuador Main Tectonic Elements. The destructive margin setting…

bp and Brazil

Ian Cross, Moyes & Co

April 8, 2026

In August 2025, bp announced the much-needed news that its exploration well designated 1-BP-13-SPS in the Bumerangue Production Sharing Contract block, located in the prolific Santos Basin, was a significant…

Grand plans, challenging geology

Henk Kombrink

March 31, 2026

Two things came together for bp in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. First, there were significant oil discoveries in Colombia. Then came the Apertura in Venezuela in the…

Long-distance up-flank oil migration offshore Brazil

Sharon Cornelius, Kenneth Shipper, Paul Mann, CBTH Project, University of Houston and Andrew Pepper, This is Petroleum Systems

March 26, 2026

This article discusses the results of a four-year 3D Earth modelling project that included detailed seismic mapping of 17 surfaces between the seafloor and the top of the Moho, using…

How Bolivia’s search for additional petroleum resources relates to Devonian paleogeography and paleolatitude

Henk Kombrink

March 12, 2026

Oil and mostly gas exploration in Bolivia has always focused on structural traps in the Andes fold and thrust-belt. Not that it was easy to drill there; overpressure, hard-to-interpret land…

Before the collapse in oil production, Venezuela saw another collapse – the mass firing of most of PDVSA’s technical staff

Henk Kombrink

January 12, 2026

Many people on LinkedIn wrote about the dramatic decline in oil production from Venezuela from 3 million barrels a day in 1998 to only a third of that twenty years…

Wildcat activity in the Latin American Atlantic Margin

Andres Mesa, NVentures

November 11, 2025

All eyes are on the Stabroek Block, where ExxonMobil and its partners have embarked on a significant three-well drilling program. The campaign, which commenced in April 2025, includes the Hamlet-1,…

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective

South America

Spatial variation in charge risk along the Guyana-Suriname margin

Before you decide to enter Venezuela…

Revival of South Africa’s first commercial Helium project

A Cenomanian- Turonian source rock adventure in the Pelotas Basin

Improving the signal-to-noise ratio in Venezuela’s oil and gas industry revival

“Seeking the Sweet Spot in offshore Ecuador’s Sweet Shop”

bp and Brazil

Grand plans, challenging geology

Long-distance up-flank oil migration offshore Brazil

How Bolivia’s search for additional petroleum resources relates to Devonian paleogeography and paleolatitude

Before the collapse in oil production, Venezuela saw another collapse – the mass firing of most of PDVSA’s technical staff

Wildcat activity in the Latin American Atlantic Margin

Subscribe