Rosneft drills first exploration well in Solimões Basin, Brazil

Rosneft Brazil has begun drilling the first exploration well in the Solimões Basin.

Rosneft is beginning the next phase of the exploration programme in the Amazon region as operator after its purchase of PetroRio’s interest in 2015.

The company has planned to perform drilling, well testing and evaluation in the second quarter of this year.

Rosneft Brasil intends to drill a minimum of four wells within this scheduled exploration drilling programme.

The objective of the campaign is to procure valuable geological information, which will help analyse the hydrocarbon resource potential of the Solimões Basin.

The Solimões blocks comprise an area of approximately 37,000km², with 18 licence blocks.

D&M has already analysed 11 discovered hydrocarbon location with estimates of 666 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) of contingent resources (95% of which is natural gas) and prospective oil resources of 371mmbbl and prospective gas resources of 1,206mmboe.

In July 2014, Rosneft Brasil and Petrobras signed a memorandum of understanding to carry out a detailed analysis of options for gas resources held in this basin, set up a joint work group and prepare a roadmap for progressing the study. .

The studies now have been completed, since the company is negotiating with Amazon region stakeholders to advance the priority monetisation options.

In May 2015, Rosneft Brasil acquired 55% interest in the Solimões project from PetroRio (formally HRT Participações em Petróleo) that led the company to assume full stake of the property.

With the Solimões project acquisition, Rosneft became an operator in Brazil, a country that offers major upstream opportunities.

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Image: Rosneft headquarters in Moscow. Photo: courtesy of NVO / Wikipedia.