Tupi oil field
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The Tupi oil field is a large oil field off the coast of Brazil located in the Santos Basin. The field was discovered in a geological formation known as the Pre-salt layer and is a new petroleum play which is thought to contain significant volumes of oil and natural gas.

Tupi
Region:	Latin America
Country:	Brazil
Coordinates:	25°30′″S 43°30′″W / <span class="geo-dec geo" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for Expression error: Unexpected / operator Expression error: Unexpected / operator">Expression error: Unexpected / operator, Expression error: Unexpected / operator[1]
Location/Block(s):	BM S 11
Offshore/Onshore:	Offshore
Operators:	Petrobras
Partners:	BG Group, Galp Energia
caption to image
Field History
Discovery:	2006
Start of production:	Expected 2010/11
Production
Current Production Oil (Bod):	Expected 100,000 b/d
Producing Formations:	Barremian, Lower Aptian Guaratiba Formation

Petrobras says this field is "comparable to the most important" in the world. The Tupi accumulation, in block BM-S-11 of the Santos basin, contains at least 5-8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, according to the state-controlled oil company. This would make it twice the size of Roncador, previously Brazil's largest field. Not only does Tupi have the potential of a 50% increase of the country's oil and gas reserves of 14 billion BOE, but it has also opened up a new horizon for exploration in Brazil: it is a pre-salt discovery – held in rocks beneath a salt layer that, in places, reaches thicknesses of over 2,000 metres. Until now, Brazil's reserves have been found in post-salt formations – above the salt layer.

The crude oil is an intermediate or medium gravity oil of 28-30 °API, which corresponds to a specific gravity around 0.88. The Tupi crude oil is considered sweet, which means that the sulfur content is less than 0.5 percent sulfur by weight.

The BG Group announced the discovery on October 4, 2006, stating that the well flowed 4900 barrels per day of sweet 30 °API crude oil and 4.3 MMscf per day of gas from a deep pre-salt reservoir on a 5/8th inch choke.

The upper estimate of 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil would be enough to meet the total global demand for crude oil for about three months at the current (2008) global extraction rate of around 85 million barrels per day.

In January 2008 Petrobras announced the discovery of the Jupiter field, a huge natural gas and condensate (very light oil) field which could equal the Tupi oil field in size. It lies 37 km (23 mi) east of Tupi.^[2]

Recent estimates have pushed the total estimated barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) to greater than 30 billion, though Petrobras has not confirmed the highest estimate.^[3] These estimates are being put into severe doubt by impartial analysts.^[4]

References