Graphic Correlation of Biostratigraphic Data as a Powerful Tool for Oil Exploration in Frontier Deepwater Areas: A Case Study in the Brazilian Equatorial Margin

Jorge De Jesus Picanço De Figueiredo, Emilson Fernandes Soares, Ivo Trosdtorf Junior, João Luiz Caldeira, Paulus Hendrikus Van Der Ven, and Elizabete Pedrão Ferreira
Petrobras S.A., Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Exploration in offshore basins in the Brazilian Equatorial Margin faces a serious problem of lack of well data in deep-waters. Despite the good quality of 3-D seismic over deepwater prospects, the response of seismic to the presence, distribution and quality of reservoirs is uncertain, thus precluding confident correlation between wells in the shallow platform with the deep offshore extensions.

The margin consists of six basins (from SE do NW: Potiguar, Ceará, Piauí-Camocim, Barreirinhas, Pará-Maranhão and Foz do Amazonas) straddling over 2,000 km of coastline and only six deep water wells.

To mitigate exploration risk is necessary to establish a reliable chronostratigraphic framework using the geological data to construct the possible highest frequency geological events charts. The recognition of variations in relative sea levels along geological time is a basic necessity, once these events can be correlated to sequence boundaries in the seismic over deepwater prospect.

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