Page 4 - LatAmOil Week 47 2020

LatAmOil COMMENTARY LatAmOil

(Image: SAGE)
Complex conjugates

High operating costs may pose challenges for companies exploring

the potential of conjugate basins on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean

THE theory of continental drift, formally spelled both South America and Africa. In other words,
out in a ground-breaking research paper pub- the discovery of Lula did more than open up
WHAT: lished by Alfred Wegener in 1912, arose from Brazil’s pre-salt zone; it also fuelled speculation
Speculation about the observation that the coastlines of several about the prospectivity of other conjugates. It
geological conjugates has continents seemed almost to fit together. That led petroleum geologists to ask, say, whether the
helped to attract interest fit is most obvious with respect to Africa and waters offshore Brazil’s easternmost point might
in Central and South South America, as the Central and South Atlan- contain as much oil and gas as the Niger River
Atlantic basins. tic coastlines of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina Delta – or whether Tana, the basin offshore
are easily a match for the Central and South Ghana that contains Jubilee and other large oil-
WHY: Atlantic coastlines of more than a dozen states fields, had its analogue in the Barreirinhas Basin
Discoveries have from Sierra Leone to South Africa. offshore Brazil.
not always matched The match is not just geographical; it is also
expectations.
geological. That is, many of the areas that con- Theory and practice
WHAT NEXT: tain crude oil and natural gas along one coastline The ideas underlying these shows of interest
High operating costs may of this pair of continents have conjugates along are scientifically plausible. They rely on data
discourage investors the other coastline. showing that as continental plates separate
from exploring deepwater To cite just one example, the Kwanza Basin along rifts and move apart, they create subsea
offshore sites. offshore Angola, where the Cameia oilfield was basins on both sides of the rifts where conditions
discovered in 2012, is the conjugate of Brazil’s are favourable for the accumulation of large
Campos Basin, where the Lula oilfield was dis- amounts of organic matter that can eventually
covered in 2006. become liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons.
The similarities between such paired basins So far, though, they have not quite lived up
have sparked no small amount of interest in to their promise.

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 26•November•2020