2013 Honorary Lecturer Central & South America | Marco Polo P. Buonora PETROBRAS E&P and University Federal Fluminense
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The use of mCSEM for deep-water hydrocarbon exploration in Brazil | | Abstract  During the past nine years, several operators have gained experience in marine controlled-source electromagnetics (mCSEM) through many multiclient and proprietary surveys in all major oil provinces of the deep-water Brazilian offshore. This has been part of the enormous industry interest that resulted in the increasing application of mCSEM around the world to map resistive features, potentially related to hydrocarbon accumulations, beneath the ocean bottom. The technology has matured significantly since its initial applications due to rapid instruments development, fit-for-purpose vessel operations, wide-azimuth 3D acquisition, advances in 3D anisotropic depth imaging, and novel integrated interpretation workflows. Today's success rate is much higher than in those early days, and this success is in part due to the application and development of the technology in the Brazilian offshore. This lecture overviews the application and development of mCSEM in Brazil, focusing on the Petrobras experience and contribution. As an early adopter, Petrobras has played a significant role in technology development with major contributions in the areas of new survey acquisition design, processing and imaging products, new inversion concepts, new integrated interpretation workflows for prospect maturation, risking, and resource estimation in order to extract full value from the data. Petrobras has acquired a large amount of mCSEM data since 2005 as part of its deep-water exploration program and it is at the forefront in addressing specific challenges and new applications specifically in the areas of reservoir characterization and monitoring. Specific case studies will demonstrate good practices, successes, and pitfall in several deep-water Brazil scenarios. The lecture will conclude with a "look ahead" toward integrated mCSEM for appraisal and development. | | | | | | |
