“Santonian Channelized Systems of The Santos Basin, Brazil: New Discoveries and Perspectives”

The Santos Basin is located in the Southeast region of Brazilian continental margin. It encompasses around 350,000 km2 of area, limited to the North with The Campos Basin by the Cabo Frio High and to the South with The Pelotas Basin by the Florianópolis Platform (Figure 1). In the same year of its creation OGX acquired four (4) exploration blocks in the 9th Bid Round organized by the National Petroleum Agency (ANP). Located in the Santos Basin these four blocks are situated in water depths of 150 meters and at 90 km from the coast of the states of Săo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The Santos Basin Petroleum Systems are well known and very active as confirmed by many recent discoveries made from 2002 on. Two important intervals of source rocks are present in the basin, (a) the Barremian (~128 My) lacustrine shales and (b) the Albian-Cenomanian (~99 My) marine shales. These source rocks generated the oil and natural gas discovered in reservoirs of many types and ages: (a) Eocene Sandstones in the northern part of the basin, (b) Santonian and Campanian Sandstones in the central part, (c) Oligocene and Albian-Cenomanian Sandstones and Albian Oolitic Calcarenites in the southern part and, (d) most recently, the Aptian Microbiolite Carbonates in the Pre-Salt area. Additionally, OGX found in its shallow water blocks Albian fractured Carbonates. The present work focuses on the discoveries that OGX has made in sandstones belongs to Santonian channelized systems. It will show the stratigraphic framework of these Santonian reservoirs and to try understanding the evolution of these systems in terms of sequence stratigraphy. Finally, it will present the OGX plans to delimit and to development this area, considering the potential of production, which was confirmed by two formation tests in different discoveries, Natal and Maceió prospects. These discoveries are the result of an aggressive investment plan and innovative exploratory vision of OGX.