Santos Basin's Guara discovery partners announce recoverable barrels

Petrobras (45 %) and partners BG Group (30 %) and Repsol (25 %) have announced that the Guara discovery in the Santos Basin pre-salt, offshore Brazil in Block BM-S-9, has been completed and has proved the very high productivity of the oil-bearing reservoirs in the pre-salt layer in this area.
Guara is now estimated to contain recoverable volumes of 1.1 to 2.0 bn barrels of oil equivalent, with oil gravity of 30 degrees API. During its drill stem test, Guara flowed at 7,000 boepd. These flow rates were facilities-constrained, and test data indicates that a permanent production well would be capable of producing initial rates of up to 50,000 boepd, providing further evidence of the robust economics of this pre-salt play.

The tested well, 1-SPS-55 (1-BRSA-594), informally known as Guara, is located in an assessment area in block BM-S-9, at a depth of 2,141 meters from the waterline, some 310 km off the coast of the State of Sao Paulo and 55 km southeast of well 1-RJS-628A (1-BRSA-369A), known as Tupi.
The Petrobras-led consortium has agreed a schedule which will prioritize the installation of production facilities on Guara, which is currently up for bid for the Santos Basin pre-salt. The development will use a 120,000 bpd Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO), targeting first production from 2012. This will follow the 100,000 bpd first phase of the Tupi field, due onstream at the end of 2010 (Petrobras, Operator 65 %, BG Group 25 % and Galp 10 %).

The Consortium will give continuity to the activities and investments that are required to assess the fields discovered in this area pursuant to the Assessment Plan approved by the NPA. A new well is foreseen to start being drilled in this Assessment Area late this year.
BG Group Chief Executive Frank Chapman said, "The well test results on Guara were excellent and underscore again the outstanding potential in BG Group's extensive position in the world-class Santos Basin. Partners are fully aligned on continuing work to accelerate the full appraisal and development of these resources, with activities ongoing and planned at Tupi, Abare-West, Corcovado, Iracema, Iara, Carioca and Parati. It is clear that the Santos Basin pre-salt will make a very material contribution to the production and cash flow of BG Group for many years to come."