PRIO Produced First Oil at the Pre-Salt Wahoo Field in Brazil
The Brazilian company PRIO, previously known as PetroRio, has produced first oil at the offshore Wahoo field in Brazil. This was reported by the company’s press service.
The pre-salt Wahoo field is located in the Campos Basin, approximately 19 miles (30 km) north of the producing Frade field and 150 km from the coast at a water depth of 1.4 thousand metres. Hydrocarbon production is carried out using the FPSO Valente (formerly known as Frade). The unit has a capacity of 100 thousand barrels per day and storage capacity of up to 1.5 million barrels.
Previously, PRIO reported plans to drill 4 production wells and 2 injection wells. Approval for drilling 6 wells was obtained in 2025. The project is estimated at 870 million US dollars.
Above Expectations
Initially, PRIO stated that each of the four production wells would produce about 10 thousand barrels per day of oil. At the end of last week, the company brought the first oil well into operation, and on March 23, 2026, reported that production had stabilized at 12 thousand barrels per day.
“The schedule for bringing the remaining wells into operation remains unchanged. It is expected that by the end of April, production at the Wahoo field will reach 40 thousand barrels per day. PRIO will inform the market about the start of production at the remaining wells,” the company said.
Wahoo Field
- discovered on block C-M-101 in 2008 by the American company Anadarko Petroleum;
- reserves are estimated at 125 million barrels of oil;
- oil gravity — 30° API;
- participants in the project development:
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in 2018, Anadarko sold its stake to bp and TotalEnergies (formerly Total);
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in November 2020, PetroRio acquired 35.7% from bp (the deal was completed in June 2021);
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in March 2021, PetroRio acquired an additional 28.6% stake from Total, increasing its share to 64.3% (the deal was completed in July 2021) and becoming the operator of the field;
- the Wahoo development project will extend the life of the Frade infrastructure and postpone the decommissioning of the Frade-Wahoo cluster from 2034 to 2054.
PRIO also reported that it has received a drilling license from the Brazilian federal regulator Ibama for a new phase of development at the Frade field. The permit allows the company to drill up to 14 new wells.
In February, PRIO produced about 148,500 barrels per day of oil, including:
- 78,000 barrels per day at the Peregrino field;
- 29,100 barrels per day at the Frade field;
- 26,000 barrels per day at the Albacora Leste field;
- 15,400 barrels per day at the Polvo-Tubarão Martelo field.
It is known that the most productive fields in Brazil are located in the pre-salt zone, however, in recent years, exploration has not yielded the desired results:
- a pre-salt field is located beneath layers of salt and sand, and pre-salt oil belongs to hard-to-recover reserves, with seismic surveys complicated by low permeability of the layers;
- insufficient quality of seismic data in pre-salt fields has created serious challenges for both onshore and offshore drilling;
- faults formed during the stretching of salt and overlying formations often serve as channels for hydrocarbon migration to potential reservoir rocks above.
- However, interest in pre-salt fields is growing.
By 2034, Brazil plans to increase oil production to 4.4 million barrels per day. The country’s Ministry of Mines and Energy forecasts peak oil production at 5.3 million barrels per day by 2030. The main share of oil (76%) and natural gas (80%) production will come from offshore pre-salt fields.
