After finding 60 drillable prospects a little more than a year after HRT Oil & Gas started its activities in the Amazon basin, its explorationists decided to expand their toolkit in the region. HRT’s partnership with the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) will open the way for a new escalation in satellite technology applications for upgrading the acquisition of data and spending less money doing it.

To overcome a lack of mapping in the Solim?es area, the partnership is establishing new and higher standards of operations and logistics. An INPE report about the new technology published by cartographic engineers Edgar Souza, Mariana Silveira, and Luiz Sguissardi from the Cartography Group of the Governmental Relations and Data Bank Management outlines the scope of the partnership.

The report indicates that the innovation enhances the quality of cartographic data acquisition used to undertake geodesic and topographic studies to support environmental licensing, agrarian licensing, seismic data acquisition, the opening of lines for long duration tests, and the building of roads, along with antennae installation and many other activities.

The antennae stations are control points for the acquisition of data from 25,000-km (15,225-mile) high satellites with precise image readings. This precision enables all operations to be conducted faster and more economically, according to the report.

The installation of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) stations in the Solim?es area improves resolution from meters to millimeters. The report also notes that over the past decade the application of GNSS has caused a revolution in navigation and in static and kinetic positioning.

This is a significant improvement considering parts of the region had not been covered by previous cartographic techniques.

The basin

HRT has a portfolio of 21 blocks in the Solim?es basin. Two wells are now being drilled: the 4-HRT-7D-AM and 1-HRT-8-AM, both targeting oil and gas.

In July, HRT announced the discovery of natural gas in the 1-HRT-8-AM well located in the SOL-T-169 block. Reservoirs were found with two gas intervals in the formation, between 3,045 m and 3,130 m (9,990 ft and 10,270 ft) depth.

Solimoes Basin, Amazon River

A bird’s eye view of the Solimoes basin shows the difficult topography of the area. (Image courtesy of HRT Oil & Gas)

The well was spudded in March by the QG-VIII rig, reaching final depth of 3,345 m (10,975 ft). The announcement confirmed the gas potential east of the field, where the 1-HRT-5-AM and 1-HRT-2-AM wells also presented discoveries.

The company has completed well formation testing on 1-HRT-8-AM and has confirmed natural gas production of 262,000 cu m/day. The well confirms the potential of the gas cluster. Production of 262,000 cu m/day was possible on a 40/ 64 -in. choke setting, with the capacity to store between 4.9 Bcm and 8.2 Bcm of recoverable gas.

Due to a logistical base in the region, operational efficiency has greatly increased in the 49,000-sq-km (18,920-sq-mile) area. HRT already concluded the drilling of eight wells, six of which revealed the existence of hydrocarbons, including the 1-HRT-6-AM well. Formation tests were conducted in both the 1-HRT-4-AM and 1-HRT-5-AM wells.

The acquisition of 3,500 km (2,130 miles) of 2-D seismic since 2011 has opened the opportunity for additional prospects. Six new wells were initially planned for this year.

Seeing through forest layers

Five stations of the GNSS programs are expected to operate in the region. One is a fluctuating port terminal, a base floating in the river that includes shelters, dorms, fuel tanks, a restaurant, a heliport, etc.

The Brazilian Continuous Monitoring GPS System Network (RBCM), also known as an active geodesic network, is administrated by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, which also formed a partnership with the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform. The partnership between HRT and INPE will participate with these institutions to better understand the geodesic structure in that part of the Brazilian territory and link it to international geodesic networks.

The information allows the observation of horizontal and vertical relative movements that occur between tectonic plates and in provinces within the plates. The study of deformation in the crust of the region associated with tectonic and non-tectonic events will be used by the companies, but the data also will be provided to the Brazilian community.

This means a great quality leap at an area considered to be a cartographic “blank.” The last quality study undertaken on the area was by the Army during the 1970s.

Specific sensors are being used to enhance local images, specifically designed to “see” through dense vegetation layers.

RBCM is a tridimensional reference structure involving latitude, longitude, and ellipsoidal altitude, and the last is a reference to the geometrical model that represents the shape of the earth. This is the most precise cartographic image available in the country, capable of delivering millimetric-precision locations to any user. This type of equipment is generally used to evaluate the seismicity during earthquakes in countries such as Chile and Japan.

Making available a countrywide information network

There are 122 points of observation and data acquisition linked through the Internet, but before the partnership between HRT and INPE, the nearest stations to the concession were in the capital, Manaus, more than 600 km (365 miles) away, and in the capital of neighboring Rondonia State, Porto Velho, more the 430 km (280 miles).

The geodesic bases will be permanent, forming a network of information that will be available to other scientists.

HRT Director Nilo Azambuja contributed significantly to the information in this article.

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