South America

Exclusive access to Venezuela’s next offshore play

Venezuela Offshore Multi-Phase Exploration Program, via exclusive multi-client agreement with the Ministry of Hydrocarbons (MINHID). Venezuela offshore: A basin re-entering the global stage Proven discoveries, established infrastructure and newly reprocessed seismic data are providing a clearer understanding of Plataforma Deltana,…

Decommissioning and discovering at the same time

The Marlim field was discovered in 1985, on the back of the first proper exploration drive to test the potential of Brazil’s deepwater Campos basin. Oil was found in Oligo­cene post-salt sands, most­ly thanks to a pronounced seismic anomaly. The…

Spatial variation in charge risk along the Guyana-Suriname margin

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 decade. Since the Liza-1 discovery in 2015, the central play…

Before you decide to enter Venezuela…

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 former, Brown provided geopolit­ical and historical perspectives and an indication…

Revival of South Africa’s first commercial Helium project

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 gas also contained high concentrations of helium, an opportunity that…

A Cenomanian- Turonian source rock adventure in the Pelotas Basin

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 to any play (source, reservoir and trap) need to be…

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

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 a resultant growing number of publications reassessing Venezuela’s subsurface potential…

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

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 for Ecuador’s northern offshore margin has its own complexity in…

bp and Brazil

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 oil and gas discovery. The discovery represents bp’s larg­est discovery…

Grand plans, challenging geology

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 early 1990s, a gov­ernment drive to bring in international oil…

Long-distance up-flank oil migration offshore Brazil

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 a detailed grid of both 2D and 3D seismic data…