Posted by The Equatorial Margin is Brazil’s new exploratory frontier in deep and ultra-deep waters where hydrocarbon exploratory potential is justified by recent discoveries in nearby countries (French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana) and in the Equatorial Conjugate Margin of Africa, called the Gulf of Guinea.
Geologically, the Foz do Amazonas basin is limited to the northwest by the Demerara plateau and to the east by the Pará-Maranhão basin. The main exploratory focus are the deep-water turbidites of the Upper Cretaceous and sandstones of the Albian Rift phase.
The geological model of the turbidites is analogous to the exploration focus of the West African margin basins (Liberia and Sierra Leone), where the Jupiter, Mercury and Venus fields were discovered. The same model was applied to the offshore part of French Guiana, where Zaedyus – the first discovery in South America’s Equatorial Margin – was discovered in Cenomanian-Turonian sandstone reservoirs, roughly 50 km away from Brazil’s borders.
Block FZA-M-59 is 800 km away from several rigs currently drilling in Guyana, over 500 km from the Amazon River’s mouth and 160 km from the closest point on the coast. The first well would be drilled at a water depth of 2,880 meters. Drilling platform ODN II has been stationary in the area for approximately 4 months waiting for the IBAMA license, which was denied last week.
Petrobras will request the environmental agency to reconsider, saying that the company has fulfilled all technical requirements according to the legislation and is willing to comply with any additional demands.