Videocon, BPCL hit pay dirt: Anadarko says Wahoo can be ‘big’

Anadarko Petroleum Corp said on Monday results from an appraisal well it drilled off Brazil increase the likelihood of a major project there for the US oil and gas company.
“We believe the results to date increase the potential resources in the prospect area, and from what we’ve seen so far, Wahoo has the characteristics necessary to potentially become our next mega-project,” Bob Daniels, senior vice president of worldwide exploration for Anadarko, said .

Videocon Industries and Bharat Petroluem Corporation hold 12.5% each in the field, acquired from Canadian firm EnCana Corp for $283 million (over Rs 1,300 crore) in September 2007, two months before oil was discovered in Wahoo by Brazilian state-owned firm Petrobras.

Brazil’s  800 km x 200 km marine pre-salt belt is expected to hold as much as 150 billion barrels of oil, second only to Saudi Arabia, which has about 265 billion barrels.
Just the first discovery in the region, Petrobras’ Tupi field, has an estimated 8 billion barrels of oil. Petrobras has also discovered many other multi-million-barrel finds in the area. 

These have pushed up Brazil’s oil reserves well beyond the earlier estimate of 14 billion barrels. In comparison, Reliance Industries’ KG D6 block is said to hold total reserves of 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent and Cairn’s Rajasthan block is estimated to hold around 1 billion barrels. The Wahoo North exploration well in the Campos Basin has encountered more than 90 feet of high-quality net oil pay in the same pre-salt interval as its original Wahoo discovery, Anadarko said. There are about 2,000 feet left to drill before the well reaches total depth, but the Houston company said its activities so far have confirmed the main producing section in the original Wahoo discovery extends at least five miles to the north.

(Anna Driver is with Reuters)