BP Plans To Drill First Deepwater Oil Well Offshore Mexico In 2020

BP will drill its first deepwater exploration well at a block it operates in the southern Gulf of Mexico (GoM) during third-quarter 2020, according to a plan approved March 20 by Mexican oil regulator CNH.

The four-year exploration plan for the block located in the GoM’s Salina Basin is expected to lead to an investment of $199.5 million and add up to 75 MMboe in reserves, according to the CNH.

Statoil and Total are equity partners in the BP-led consortium, which won the development rights to the block in Mexico’s first-ever deepwater oil auction in late 2016.

CGG Starts Acquiring Multiclient Survey Offshore Brazil

CGG has begun acquiring a broadband 3-D multiclient survey that covers more than 8,000 sq km (3,089 sq miles) in Brazil’s deepwater presalt Santos Basin.

Called Santos VIII, the survey is part of CGG’s ongoing presalt program that aims to deliver “ultramodern seismic data, enabling exploration companies to better evaluate presalt opportunities in advance of Brazil’s presalt licensing rounds,” the company said in a news release.

The survey area is adjacent to the Peroba, Pau Brasil and Boumerangue fields.

CGG said it plans to image the resulting BroadSeis data with its advanced full-waveform inversion technology at its Rio de Janeiro Subsurface Imaging Center and merge it with the Constellation reprocessing project to provide a regional broadband image of the basin.

Fast-track products will be available in fourth-quarter 2018 with final products available in second-quarter 2019.

ION Takes On 3-D Reimaging Program Offshore Australia

ION Geophysical Corp. will carry out a 3-D multiclient broadband reimaging program offshore Australia that spans about 17,000 sq km (6,564 sq miles).

The survey, which ION said will integrate and reimage data from 15 vintage surveys using modern depth imaging, covers the northern part of the Vulcan sub-basin offshore northwest Australia. ION noted the area is known for complex imaging challenges, something the company hopes to ease with its reimaging program that utilizes broadband processing and general moveout tomography.

“This cost-effective reimaging will help de-risk future exploration in this complex area at a fraction of the cost of acquiring new data,” ION said in the release. “There are a number of existing fields and discoveries as well as available acreage in upcoming license rounds within the boundary of the North Vulcan 3-D multiclient reimaging program.”

—Staff Reports