Why an Offshore symposium in the region?

 

In the last 10 years (2010-2019), 180 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE), i.e. 70% of conventional hydrocarbon resources discovered at a global scale were incorporated in offshore areas. From these, 70%, i.e. 124 BBOE, were incorporated in deep and ultra-deep offshore areas (Wood Mackenzie database, Dec 2019).

 

In the South American platform, to the south of Rio Grande rise (Brazil), the industry has had a historically irregular activity. However, a great interest on the area was recently observed due to discoveries such as Sea Lion, new exploratory concepts in deep oil (DO) and ultra-deep oil (UDO) areas, new seismic data, resignification of hydrocarbon shows in underexplored areas, identification of complete basins not yet tested by the drill bit. Today, the interest of the industry involves the wide platform area the continental margin and the proximal oceanic sector too. The excellent response of our industry to the offshore exploration bid round carried out by the Argentine government in early 2019 is a clear example. Today, many operators who were awarded exploration permits in that round, have already progressed in the acquisition of 2D and 3D seismic surveys   and may be drilling exploration wells in the area, starting in 2023 or 2024, should the projects proceed to second terms.

 

 

Objetive:

 

The purpose of this Symposium is to gather the industry and academic institutions to talk about the current knowledge on geology, geophysics and the hydrocarbon exploration potential of the South Atlantic region, south of the Walvis-Rio Grande rise. Likewise, we will discuss the exploration experiences on the conjugate African margin.

 

Subthemes:

 

• Geological and geodynamic evolution previous to Gondwana’s breakup.
• Mesozoic rifting and continental breakup of SW Gondwana; volcanism, tectonism and sedimentation. Continental breakup models; impact on basin models.
• Tectonostratigraphic evolution, petroleum systems, development and exploration geology and geophysics, in meso-cenozoic basins in the region. Description of prospects, discoveries and fields.
• 2D and 3D seismic acquisition operations, processing, direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHI) studies and quantitative seismic interpretation, gravimetry, magnetometry, remote sensing, slicks, seeps and other geophysical or geological data acquisition methods.
• Studies on infrastructure, operations, logistics and regulation of hydrocarbon exploration and production activities in Argentine waters.

 

Reference Team:

 

Alberto Sánchez López, Equinor

Josep Bernaus, Equinor

Daniel Pérez Simón, Enap Sipetrol

Víctor Vega, Shell

Rodolfo González, Total Austral