Petrobras strikes again in Carcara

Brazilian majority state-owned petroleum company Petrobras has encountered significant light oil reserves in the offshore Carcara discovery in block BM-S-8 in the Santos Basin.

“The carbonate reservoirs have excellent characteristics and are immediately below the salt layer at a depth of 5,870 metres,” Petrobras said in a Tuesday press release. “A significant oil column of 318 meters was found and there has been no oil or water contact for this accumulation.”

The Carcara NW well is the third exploration well drilled in the discovery, and the oil strike greatly expands the company’s original estimate of the reserves in the play.

When Carcara was first discovered in 2012, it contained the country’s largest known oil column, with more than 400 metres of connected oil reserves. Carcara is located in Brazil’s sub-salt region, where large amounts of oil reserves lie beneath a mineral salts underneath the seabed.

Petrobras holds a 66-percent operating stake in block BM-S-8, and the remainder is split between Galp Energia (14 percent), Barra Energia do Brasil Petroleo e Gas (10 percent) and Queiroz Galvao Exploracao e Producao (10 percent).

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