The amount of barrels that can be extracted and the above-average oil price make pre-salt the best source of offshore investments in the world.

The Brazilian pre-salt proved to be very popular among the main oil operators in the world, a fact confirmed by the 4th round of auctions that took place in last Friday (8) with six multinationals fighting for the best bids (learn more), in order to operate these exploration blocks. All this greed has a very logical explanation: It is estimated that at least five billion barrels of oil could be extracted from these assets, as reported by geology professionals and production experts.

Experts say that nowadays, oil multinationals see the pre-salt layer as the biggest and best offshore exploration asset for investment in the world. They also add that the market tends to keep the price of a barrel above US$ 70,00 a barrel, if geopolitical instabilities are taken into account. With the forecast of good future prices, oil companies naturally do not want to be left out of this market share.

Potential of the Uirapuru block

The consultant from ZG Consulting in Petroleum Exploration, Pedro Zalán, who is also a geologist, says that of all the disputed blocks, the Uirapuru were the most targeted. It turns out that seismic studies, among other research, point out that these blocks may contain oil reserves between 2 and 3 billion barrels recoverable with current technologies, which are capable of extracting around 30% of a well's reserve.

Statoil bets all the chips

The Uirapuru block is located in the northern sector of the Carcará asset, in the Santos Basin pre-salt. Statoil (now Equinor) is the second operator with the largest share of operations in this block, since Petrobras chose to exercise its preemptive right because in the group it was in the dispute, it had lost the bids. The Norwegian informs that she invested a good part of her Brazilian capital in Uirapuru, betting on “all or nothing”.