Libra oil field is a large ultra-deepwater oil prospect located in the
Santos Basin
The Santos Basin ( pt, Bacia de Santos) is an approximately large mostly offshore sedimentary basin. It is located in the south Atlantic Ocean, some southeast of Santos, Brazil. The basin is one of the Brazilian basins to have resulted from th ...
, about off the coast of
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, north of
Tupi field. Libra is in the process of being tested and may turn out to be the largest
pre-salt find in the basin, ahead of the
Tupi oil field
The Tupi oil field (reverted from Lula oil field) is a large oil field located in the Santos Basin, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The field was originally nicknamed in honor of the Tupi people and later named after the mollusc, ho ...
, making the largest find since
Cantarell Field
Cantarell Field or Cantarell Complex is an supergiant offshore oil field in Mexico. It was discovered in 1976 after oil stains were noticed by a fisherman, Rudesindo Cantarell Jimenez, in 1972. It was placed on nitrogen injection in 2000, and pro ...
in 1976.
(ANP) officials are confident Libra will contain even more recoverable oil than
Franco oil field.
History
The field was discovered in May 2010 at the same time as the Franco prospect. Libra is located from Franco and is being drilled by Petrobras contracted by the ANP.[
On 14 July 2010, the first exploration well collapsed when it reached an underwater salt bed.][
] A second layer of hydrocarbons was found in late December 2010.
Eleven companies including CNOOC, CNPC, Ecopetrol, Mitsui, ONGC Videsh (OVL), Petrogal, Petrobras, Petronas, Repsol-Sinopec, Shell and Total were approved by ANP to participate in the Libra auction. Of these, only nine paid financial guarantees to ANP.
Production rights were awarded 21 October 2013 to a consortium led by Petrobras, including France's TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...
and Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell Plc, who each took 20 percent of the partnership, while China National Petroleum Corp and China's CNOOC took 10 percent each. Petrobras has a 40% interest. Major investments are expected to be made in 2018–2019, but the firms will work to start production as soon as possible. Pre-Sal Petroleo SA, or PPSA, a Brazilian government-run firm, will manage development of the country's recently discovered deep-water oil fields. It named Oswaldo Pedrosa as manager of the company on 14 October 2013.
Ownership
The Libra field is owned by a consortium of five companies. Petrobras owns 40%, Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
and Total each hold 20%, and CNPC and CNOOC both own 10%. Petrobras also acts as the operator.
Reservoir
The region the reservoir is located in is wide and long.[ The oil lies under of water and further under sand, rock and shifting salt layer.][ According to consultancy firm Gaffney, Cline & Associates the field's reserves are "with the most probable estimate being ".][
]
See also
*Campos Basin
The Campos Basin is one of 12 coastal sedimentary basins of Brazil. It spans both onshore and offshore parts of the South Atlantic with the onshore part located near Rio de Janeiro. The basin originated in Neocomian stage of the Cretaceous perio ...
References
External links
Petrobras official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Libra Oil Field
Oil fields of Brazil
Petrobras oil and gas fields