Challenger Energy says reprocessing has started of legacy 3D seismic data over AREA OFF-3 offshore Uruguay.
The program, due to be completed in the second quarter next year, will be supported by the application of amplitude variation with offset, which the company deployed previously over its AREA OFF-1 block.
New AREA OFF-3 operator Chevron and Challenger are seeking to draw up suitable prospects for drilling and to determine the optimum drilling locations. Challenger also aims to use the results to support a farm-out process that could begin in mid-2025.
Under an agreed uplift licensing model with the seismic data vendor, agreed license fees will become payable only if or when the farm-out process has finished. The full costs of reprocessing, interpretation, mapping and associated technical work should be in the range of $1 million to $1.5 million.
AREA OFF-3 covers 13,252 sq km in water depths from 20-1,000 m, 150 km from the Uruguayan coast. To the east is the Brazilian maritime border, close to where 13 blocks were licensed last December to Petrobras, Chevron, Shell and CNOOC.
Prior seismic activity on AREA OFF-3 block included ~4,000 km of 2D (various vintages) and ~7,000 sq km of 3D (2012 and 2016), some acquired by bp and PGS.
Two potentially large prospects, Amalia and Morpheus, have been identified and mapped by previous operators in water depths of about 250 m.
