BPRL consortium to drill off Brazil
Petrobras is preparing to drill two appraisal wells at the POT-16-663 and POT-16-760 blocks in the Portiguar basin off Brazil where its partners include BPCL subsidiary Bharat Petro Resources (BPRL) and Videocon.
A BPRL source says Brazil’s upstream regulator ANP last month (October) approved an appraisal plan for the oil discovery made earlier in the year at POT-16-760. “One appraisal well will be drilled in 2015-16 and one in 2016-17,” he said.
Well locations are yet to be decided but both wells will be drilled in water depths of around 1800 metres to 4500 metres TD, targeting the Alagamar and Pescada formations. Each well should cost $110m-$120m and take 70-90 days to drill.
“Drill stem tests, if carried out, can take another 40-45 days,” we hear. A single exploration well drilled earlier this year at POT-16-760 had “very good oil shows” from a 100 metre thick sand column.
BPRL and Videocon 50:50 joint venture IBV (Brazil) Petroleo has 20% in the two blocks.