Location:
Offshore shallow water Santos Basin, Brazil, on trend with the Caravela (oil) and Merluza (gas) fields. Karoon Gas has five blocks 1037, 1101, 1102, 1165 and 1166 covering an area of 850 km 2.
Geology:
Within the permits there is potential for a range of play types from tilted fault block plays to salt related plays. Work program reprocessing, new seismic and geological studies will define the optimum play types and prospects over the next three years.
Elsewhere in the Santos Basin the giant new light oil discovery by Petrobras of the deep water Tupi field, to the east of the blocks awarded to Karoon, has altered industry perception of the commercial potential Santos basin. To date three quarters of Brazil's average daily production had been from heavy crude discoveries. The sub-salt Tupi field ensured strong competition in the latest round of bidding for exploration acreage in Brazil. Since the last round two more discoveries have been made by Petrobras joint ventures at Jupiter west of Tupi and within block BM-S-21 east of Tupi. The most recent field discoveries in this shallow water area of the southern Santos Basin has been the Early Cretaceous Guaruja Formation Cavalo Marinho Field in 2001 and the Late Cretaceous Itajai Formation Lagosta Field in 2003.
Interest:
Karoon 100% equity from ANP bid round 9 (2007).
Karoon Gas Santos Basin Acreage
Potential:
3 main leads with 100 to 200mmbl oil potential and/or multi TCF of gas prospective resources on 2D data. Additional lead mapping is ongoing using high quality Veritas DGC 2001 3D data.
JV and work program:
- 3 Year First Term Work Program
Extensive geological analysis.
- Purchase of 2001 3D Seismic Data and reprocessing for Pre Stack Depth Migration.
- Acquire 510 sq. km 3D seismic data over three blocks.
- One well in each block during the optional second term of 2 years.