Ceará basin block in Brazil said to have potential for big oil finds

Brazil’s offshore exploration block CE-M-601, in the Ceará basin, has good exploratory prospects and potential for medium and large discoveries of oil accumulations, according to a recent report prepared by its former operator Wintershall DEA and obtained by BNamericas. 

In the document, the German oil company pointed out that there are geological similarities between the equatorial margin on the northeastern coast of Brazil and the corresponding coast of Africa, leading to suggestions of a new oil province. 

“Considering that the last drilling activities took place more than 10 years ago on the Brazilian [equatorial] margin, as recently as 2012, with technologies far inferior to those available today, new discoveries are expected to be made in a new exploratory stage,” the Wintershall report reads. 

With an area of 769km2, block CE-M-601 is located in water depths ranging from 1,000m to 2,700m. 

It was acquired in full by Wintershall in 2018 for a signing bonus of 9mn reais (US$1.9mn at the current exchange rate), in the 15th bidding round held by the local sector watchdog ANP. 

The company decided to return the block last January because of its new global strategy, which is to prioritize natural gas and produce oil in the most efficient and responsible way, in line with its climate goals. 

"This decision is the result of a very thorough analysis of our global portfolio and evaluation of individual projects and how they fit with our long-term strategy," Thilo Wieland, member of the Wintershall Dea board and responsible for the company's Russia and Latin America regions and transportation, said at the time. 

The exploratory program for CE-M-601 was carried out by Wintershall, contracting 4,630km2 of a 3D multi-client seismic program purchased and processed by PGS that covered several assets off the Ceará coast. 

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) reprocessing of that data was performed in the block, with the total coverage of 768km2 carried out by the same service provider.  

Data from existing wells and oil fields in the Ceará basin and nearby basins were also used for the assessment of the block. 

Source: Wintershall

In total, 10 prospects were identified within the block with targets at different stratigraphic levels. The main prospect mapped was Morro Branco, covering a total area of 60 km2.

Source: Wintershall