Petrobras has made an ultra-deepwater oil discovery in the frontier Ceará basin off Brazil’s northeastern coast.

The Brazilian major said it had successfully verified the presence of oil during the drilling of well 1-BRSA-1080-CES (1-CES-158), informally named Pecém. The probe is located 76 km (47 miles) away from the county of Paracuru on the Ceará state coast, in a water depth of 2,129 m (6,985 ft). The discovery occurred in siliciclastic reservoirs of the Paracuru Formation, and hit an estimated hydrocarbon column of 290 m (951 ft), with 140 m (459 ft) of reservoir.

The well is currently at a depth of 4,410 m (14,469 ft) with the probe planned to be drilled to a total depth of 5,500 m (18,046 ft).

Petrobras operates the BM-CE-2 concession with a 60% interest, in partnership with BP (40%). The consortium will continue operations to complete the well, check the extent of the discovery, and define the permeability and porosity of the reservoirs.