New insights into the hydrocarbon potential of Brazil’s Equatorial basins: An underexplored Atlantic margin

The Brazil equatorial margin is a frontier exploration area with a great diversity of play types ranging from syn-rift plays, post-rift stratigraphic plays involving Cretaceous and Paleogene deep-water sands as well as post-rift structural plays related to listric and thrust faults. So far, the drilling effort in this extensive region has been focused on the shallow water, targeting syn-rift plays, from which the main success has been some producing fields on the continental shelf of Ceara and Potiguar basins.

Recent major discoveries in the deep-water areas of the Guyana and Tano basins has raised the optimism of finding important hydrocarbon fields in the Brazil equatorial margin. Having a similar geological evolution, the expectation to replicate that success could spark the return of drilling activities to the Brazilian side since the last exploration well drilled in 2015.

2D reprocessing pilot tests were carried out in Foz Do Amazonas, Para Maranhao and Ceara basins, followed by a full 2D seismic reimaging in Ceara basin. Results of these 2D reprocessing projects show a great improvement in the seismic image and enable a more confident structural and stratigraphic interpretation for lead and prospect identification.

Regional-scale seismic interpretation using the new 2D reimaging data is included in this work. It provides a better view of the different play types in the Brazil equatorial basins. This helps to improve the understanding of the exploration potential of the region and the geological risks, in particular, the risks related to the trap definition and reservoir distribution.