Petrobras submitted (Wednesday, 3 Sept) the declaration of commerciality for oil and gas accumulations in the Sul de Guará, Nordeste de Tupi and Florim areas to Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP). These areas fall under the Rights’ Transfer Agreement and are located in the Santos Basin pre-salt cluster.

In the proposal sent to the ANP, the names suggested for the new fields were Sul de Sapinhoá (South of Guará), Sépia (Northeast of Tupi) and Itapu (Florim).

The volume of 1.214 billion barrels of oil equivalent (oil and natural gas) for the three areas contracted under the agreement was confirmed in the exploratory phase. The pre-salt reservoirs in these fields contain good quality oil (26º to 29º API).

During implementation of the Mandatory Exploratory Plan, Petrobras collected 3D seismic data for all areas and drilled 3 mandatory and 2 additional wells in order to delimit and characterize the reservoirs. In addition, 3 formation tests and 1 extended well test were carried out to assess productivity.

The new fields of Sépia and Itapu are located between 185 km and 260 km offshore of Rio de Janeiro State at depths of 1,850 to 2,250 meters. The Sul de Sapinhoá field is some 320 km off the coast of São Paulo State at a depth of 2,200 to 2,250 meters.

In line with the Petrobras 2014-2018 Business and Management Plan, commercial production in Nordeste de Tupi (Sépia field) and Florim (Itapu field) will begin in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Petrobras is analyzing alternatives for the development of the Sul de Guará area (South of Sapinhoá field) and will announce the production start-up date when the 2015-2019 Business and Management Plan is released.

The specified start-up dates for these new fields are under review and subject to change or confirmation when the Development Plan for each area is submitted to ANP.

With the declaration of commerciality of Sul de Guará, Nordeste de Tupi and Florim, the formal process of reviewing the rights’ transfer agreement will get under way on a block-by-block basis, based on the technical and economic assumptions for each area. The review is expected to be completed in 2015.

This review process is already under way for the Franco and Sul de Tupi areas, whose declarations of commerciality were submitted in December of 2013. The only area under the rights transfer agreement not yet declared commercially viable is Entorno de Iara, and the declaration is expected by December 2014.