Campos basin takes centre stage as star dims for pre-salt Santos

摘要

FOR over a decade exploration activity in the deep waters of the Santos basin pre-salt province off Brazil has yielded outstanding results, with the region becoming the hottest offshore play in the world for new giant oil and natural gas discoveries. Brazilian state-controlled company Petrobras led the charge with the first string of major pre-salt finds in the late 2000s, after setting up an ambitious and challenging wildcatting programme in search of hydrocarbon deposits in unexplored deeper horizons beneath a thick salt layer. The successful drive led to massive discoveries holding billions of barrels of oil equivalent such as Tupi, Guara, Jupiter, Iracema, Car-ioca, Iara and many others, forever changing the landscape of the oil and gas industry in the South American nation. Despite a pair of unfortunate campaigns from US supermajor ExxonMobil and UK company BG Group - now part of Anglo-Dutch player Shell - with the respective drilling of the Azulao and Corcovado wells, Petrobras continued striking oil in the Santos basin pre-salt fairway with a remarkable hit rate of nearly 100%, something unprecedented in the industry.