PGS Announces Vision Program in Brazil Santos Basin

Following last year's announcement by the Brazilian Ministry of Energy and Mines of a 2017 Pre-Salt Unitization Auction and Exploration Round, PGS is introducing its latest leading-edge technology to Brazil's Santos Basin in a new program called Santos Vision.

Industry pre-funding and sanctioning of the Santos Vision program has been encouraging. New legislation passed by the Brazilian parliament in October 2016 removed the participation requirement of Petrobras in pre-salt exploration, generating additional industry support and pre-funding.Through the Santos Vision program, PGS is rejuvenating its Santos portfolio by starting from field tapes and applying the latest broadband imaging technology. Data conditioning, noise and multiple suppression, together with new model-building tools and imaging algorithms will provide the most comprehensive and geologically sound dataset to date. These technologies are specifically aimed at optimizing the pre-salt targets.

The Santos Basin has seen oil and gas production since the 1970s and remains active. As new technology and play concepts reveal more potential than was originally envisioned, the pre-salt play fairway offshore Brazil has become the focus for many companies. Proven reservoir potential is within the micro-biolite and coquinas formations and structures which contain potentially large hydrocarbon accumulations. The recent opening of this play fairway to unitization and bid rounds makes the PGS Santos Vision program timely and effective for exploiting these resources. Santos Vision will provide high-quality depth imaging using state-of-the-art seismic processing, velocity model building and advanced imaging technologies and workflows.

Once complete, PGS' Santos Vision will cover ~35 000 sq. km. Area 1 deliverables are available from April 2017.