Santos Basin, Brazil

Reservoir targets in the Santos basin are localized in presalt carbonate build-ups underneath heterogeneously layered evaporite sequences and interbedded with volcanic rocks. On legacy data the presalt image is not well expressed, so the complexity of the salt and the differing character of the post-salt carbonates throughout the area needs to be understood and incorporated into the velocity model building process. The high degree of complexity within the salt, and the presence of areas with good reflectivity and others with little or no reflectivity must be accounted for in the modeling to obtain clear images.

One major objective of the reprocessing was to image the presalt stratigraphic signature and rift architecture as these are directly related to the play type characterized by presalt carbonate buildups along tilted or uplifted fault block highs. Santos Vision delivers high granularity imaging of the base salt, reveals reservoir presence and accurate imaging of the rift fault patterns beneath the salt mitigating the risk of CO₂ invasion. Now with a large scale view in a single dataset, Santos Vision offers exploration companies access to accurate data and images to improve exploration, reduce risk and create their own vision of this prolific basin.

Image to the right - The structural conformity of the velocity model with the salt morphology and the overlying Albian carbonates is key for successfully imaging the presalt architecture and associated hydrocarbon reservoirs.