Petrobras Plans to Complete Drilling of Morpho Exploration Well on Equatorial Margin Soon

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 23, Sylvia Anjos, Executive Director of Exploration and Production at Petrobras, stated that the company expects to complete the drilling of the Morpho exploration well in Block FZA-M-59 in the Amazon Mouth Basin on the Equatorial Margin this week or next week. This well is the first well in Petrobras' current exploration plan in the Amazon Mouth Basin, and drilling is continuing toward the target formation specified by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), with the maximum drilling depth controlled within approximately 7,250 meters.

The Morpho well had previously encountered oil shows. Sylvia Anjos disclosed that after the oil indications were found, a new round of cementing operations was carried out in the wellbore, and drilling resumed on September 22. Petrobras has not yet announced the scale of the discovered resources or the specific API gravity, but the company has confirmed that oil samples were obtained and sent to the Cenpes research center in Rio de Janeiro for analysis. The company previously stated that the crude oil found in this well is light oil.

After the Morpho well is completed, the exploration focus in Block FZA-M-59 will shift to three other wells. The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) approved on September 3 the drilling arrangements for three additional wells in the block—Manga, PAD Morpho, and Crotalus—which will be used to further obtain data on reservoir extent, continuity, and resource scale. Petrobras plans to begin construction of the first of these wells in early 2027 and to proceed with the remaining wells sequentially within 2027.

The additional wells may be drilled by the ODN-II (NS-42) drillship operated by Foresea or the Amaralina Star (NS-43) under Constellation. Among them, ODN-II is currently undertaking the Morpho well operation and is scheduled to move to the Potiguar Basin to drill the Mãe de Ouro well after completing this well; if Amaralina Star is used for operations in Block FZA-M-59, it must first complete the adaptive modification of the drill cuttings recovery system required by Ibama and undergo inspection.

Petrobras plans to drill 15 wells on the Equatorial Margin during the 2026–2030 strategic cycle, corresponding to an investment of approximately US$2.5 billion, accounting for 37.5% of the company's US$7.1 billion exploration investment over the same period. The relevant exploration areas cover the Amazon Mouth, Pará-Maranhão, Barreirinhas, Ceará, and Potiguar basins. The three subsequent wells in FZA-M-59 will undertake reservoir evaluation tasks, and the resource volume and commerciality judgment will be further determined after additional drilling obtains more geological data.