After announcing its drilling schedule, Total will mobilize offshore units in 2018 to start contracting and drilling in the following months

A Total presented to Ibama a update of the project schedule for the drilling of nine wells in the area of ​​the five exploratory blocks that it won in the Foz do Amazonas Basin in the 11th round of the ANP, held in 2013. The company expects to start mobilizing Ensco's DS-9 rig in the third quarter of this year to start drilling the first well in the first quarter of 2019.

The oil company's plan foresees two wells in 2019, three in 2020 and another four in 2021. There is the possibility of using two rigs in the campaign, but it is extremely remote, warns the company. “The company informs that the possibility of using a second rig, for a simultaneous drilling activity, is extremely remote and it is only envisaged that it could occur at the end of the exploratory campaign. Even so, both the impact assessment and the risk analysis presented already contemplate, when relevant, the scenario of two rigs operating simultaneously”, says the company in the document sent to Ibama.

The plan was presented by the oil company along with a series of documents after a meeting held at the environmental agency in January to present the Monitoring Program for Foz do Amazonas. The project was one of the items rejected by Ibama in August last year, when the environmental license for the campaign was not issued.

If Ibama does not release the drilling of wells in the region, the natural path is for Total to return the block concession to the ANP. Total operates five blocks in Foz do Amazonas and plans to drill nine wells in the basin. In all, the oil companies that won blocks in Foz do Amazonas in the 11th round of the ANP, held in 2013, plan to drill 12 wells in the region. In addition to Total, BP and QGEP are licensing projects in the area. Text by E&P Brasil