R&D Projects
Petrobras & Field Trip in the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal)
Rui Pena dos Reis, Coimbra University; and Nuno Pimentel, Lisbon University
Petrobras, the main Brazilian oil company, promoted a one-week field-trip in the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal), which took place during the last week of May.
This activity started in 2006, when a 3-year contract has been signed for three annual field trips until 2008. The contract has been established with the Coimbra University (UC), and the Lisbon University (UL), under supervision of Prof. Pena dos Reis (UC), Prof. Nuno Pimentel (UL) and Gilmar Bueno (Petrobras).
Other colleagues have collaborated in the Field Trip, namely Prof. Antônio Garcia (Sergipe, Brazil), Prof. Jorge Dinis, Prof. Helena Henriques & Prof. Luis Duarte (UC), Prof. Rui Baptista (UL) and Prof. Tiago Alves (Cardiff University), providing multiple technical and scientific contributions to it.
Each year, 10 professionals from Petrobras, including both geologists and geophysicists, came to Portugal to visit the basin, and in 2007 two colleagues from portuguese-speaking countries (Cap Verde and São Tomé) have also been invited. Each one of the three groups had the opportunity to look at the Lusitanian basin outcrops and to get an overall view of this atlantic passive margin with a complex rift evolution history.
From the contractor point-of-view, the main goal of this Field Trip is to profit from the magnificent exposure conditions of the outcrops (as a result from intense tertiary inversion), providing an excellent learning about rift marine basins. The entire sedimentary sequence may be observed in detail in largescale outcrops, mainly along littoral cliffs with moderate dips. The sequence includes siliciclastics associated to its initial rifting configuration in Late Triassic, deep-marine carbonates related to an Early Jurassic sag phase, continental to marine siliciclastics resulting from a second Late Jurassic rifting, and fluvial to transitional deposits correlative with a Cretaceous drift phase. Other interesting aspects include the observation of multiple inversion features, largely exposed diapiric areas and some oil seeps.
During one week, several stops are articulated to provide the participants with as many field information as possible, looking at and discussing facies, structures, palaeogeographies, tectonic controls, geodynamic evolution, etc. The exchange of different ideas between professionals and academics with different technical specialities and backgrounds, has been always a source of lively debates and even building-up of new insights.
This Field Trip, promoted by E&P/Petrobras (Geology Applied to Exploration) is aimed as a geological field and rock based refreshment, contributing to new interpretations and models in marine rifting basins. The organizers hope that the experience accumulated by those 30 professionals may be carried into their daily tasks, contributing to new discoveries and also promoting stronger cooperation between the Portuguese universities and Petrobras.