Jean Paul Prates: drilling will define the fate of the Pitu area in Rio Grande do Norte.
Investments in the exploration of the Equatorial Margin, which extends from Rio Grande do Norte to the northernmost point of the national coastline, are projected at around US$3 billion.
247 - The president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, reported that it is necessary to delimit the area to begin drilling at Pitu, in the Potiguar Basin (RN). The area in question, discovered in 2013, is located approximately 60 kilometers (km) off the coast of Areia Branca, in the Costa Branca region of Rio Grande do Norte, near the border with the state of Ceará. According to the state-owned company, the well drilling reached a final depth of 4.200 meters. Investments in the exploration of the Equatorial Margin, which encompasses the basins of the North and Northeast of the Brazilian coast and extends from Rio Grande do Norte to the far north of the national coastline, are projected at approximately US$ 3 billion, equivalent to R$ 15,6 billion.
"The exploratory drilling campaign in the Potiguar Basin is fundamental to investigating whether we have an oil field that can be commercially produced. The BM-POT-17 concession is located in deep waters of the Potiguar Basin, off the northern coast of the state of Rio Grande do Norte, and is part of the Equatorial Margin, which extends along the Brazilian coast between the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Amapá. Petrobras foresees investments of approximately US$ 3 billion in the Equatorial Margin as a whole over the next 5 years," he said.
In an interview with Now RNAccording to the president of the Professional Association of Geologists of Rio Grande do Norte (Agern), Orildo Lima e Silva, the region cannot yet be classified as a field because some stages of the classification process have not been fully completed.
"This [Pitú] well was called well number one, which discovered the area and confirmed the existence of oil with a certain thickness. Once confirmed, it would be economically viable. Later, a second well was drilled, which reduced the thickness of the potential deposit. It cooled down the area a bit. By that time, the pre-salt layer had already been discovered, Petrobras had started investing in the pre-salt, and Pitú was somewhat put on hold, let's say," he stated.