The Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP) plans to invest as much as 1.
24 billion reais ($344.5 million) in new geological and geophysical studies during the period running from 2015 to 2018, writes Fabio Palmigiani.
The total amount includes 820 million reais that will be disbursed by the Brazilian federal government and 420 million reais that is planned to be spent using the regulator’s own cash resources.
The goal of the ANP’s investments is to enhance the level of knowledge about new frontier onshore and offshore basins. The ANP intends to contract for fresh 2D seismic surveys covering 26,000 line kilometres in the Parnaiba, Parecis and Parana basins.
In the Parana and Parecis basins, the ANP also plans to acquire new magnetotelluric and gravity survey data over 200,000 line kilometres.
The four-year plan through 2018 is also expected to feature the drilling of a new pre-salt exploration well on open acreage. There are also plans for the construction of a rocks and fluids research centre in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, in Rio de Janeiro state, the drilling of stratigraphic wells in the Parecis and Parnaiba basins, and projects related to the study of unconventional resources.