Abstract

More than 45 billion barrels of recoverable oil have been discovered in the Santos and Campos Basin pre-salt play to date. The prolific nature of this play relates to a supercharged Barremian-to-Aptian synrift petroleum system; a regionally extensive Aptian evaporite top seal; an extraordinary combination of high-storage capacity, high deliverability, undersaturated and overpressured lacustrine carbonate reservoirs; excellent crude oil quality (in areas that are CO₂-poor); and large closure areas with access to multiple thermally mature, oil-prone source kitchens.

A calibrated megaregional 3-D seismic data volume is a critical factor in the development and understanding of the Santos Basin pre-salt play. The data volume comprises more than 99,000 km² of mixed-vintage, mixed-azimuth 3-D seismic data, which were consistently pre-stack depth migrated (PSDM), reimaged using a calibrated anisotropic velocity model, and consistently datumed, amplitude balanced, and phase matched.

The data have application to both pre-salt exploration and pre-salt field development. At basin scale, the data are used to define a 210,000 km² pre-salt play fairway and to understand controls on pre-salt hydrocarbon accumulation. At field and reservoir scales, inverted elastic seismic data attributes and data analytics are used to determine and predict reservoir and fluid properties, thereby enabling effective field appraisal and development.