Uirapuru oil discovery : Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) has pulled off an oil discovery in the Uirapuru block in the Santos Basin pre-salt in Brazilian waters through the drilling of a pioneer well.

The Brazilian oil giant said that the pioneer well is located nearly 200km off the coast of the city of Santos in São Paulo. It was drilled at a water depth of 1,995m, with the oil discovery made in porous reservoirs in the exploratory prospect, which is informally called Araucária.

Petrobras spudded the Uirapuru well in November 2019 with the West Tellus drillship owned by Seadrill with the drilling program targeting carbonate reservoirs at final depths of about 5,900m.

The Brazilian national oil company said that the well data will be evaluated for better targeting of the exploratory operations in
the area apart from assessing the potential of the Uirapuru oil discovery.

Petrobras acquired the Uirapuru concession during the 4th Production Sharing Round in June 2018 under a production sharing regime with the manager being Pré-sal Petróleo (PPSA).

Petrobras operates the Uirapuru block with a 30% stake, with its partners being ExxonMobil (28%), Equinor (28%), and Petrogal (14%), a subsidiary of Galp.

The Uirapuru block has an area of 1,285 square kilometers in the pre-salt polygon in the Santos basin, located 175 km from shore, at water depths ranging from 800 to 2,100m. The block is located adjacent to the north of the Carcara pre-salt development, which is operated by Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor.

  Brazil, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Petrobras, Santos Basin, Uirapuru block