Petrobras announced on Thursday (29) its third oil discovery at the Morpho well, in the Foz do Amazonas basin, about 150 kilometers off the coast of the state of Amapá, in Brazil's far north. The state-controlled company said drilling and geological data collection at the block are complete. It is the company's first ultra-deepwater drilling campaign in the region, under a water column of 2,886 meters, the distance from the sea surface to the ocean floor.

The two earlier discoveries at the same well had been disclosed in August and early October 2026. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Petrobras said the finds correspond to three different reservoirs at different depths, but has not yet detailed the volume or quality of the oil found.

"Our technical persistence allowed three discoveries to be made in the same well, which makes us even more optimistic about the exploratory potential of the Equatorial Margin," Petrobras chief executive Magda Chambriard said in a statement. The Equatorial Margin is the stretch of Brazil's northern coastline, from Amapá to Rio Grande do Norte, where sedimentary basins share geology with neighboring Guyana.

Global oil majors circle the region

The global oil industry is watching the Foz do Amazonas closely, betting on a new producing frontier similar to the one that turned Guyana into an oil exporter in recent years. U.S. companies ExxonMobil and Chevron have already begun exploratory work in the area, hiring seismic surveys from contractors SLB and Shearwater, the first step in the search for reserves. ExxonMobil operates five concessions in the Foz do Amazonas; Chevron operates nine. In October, Brazil's oil regulator ANP approved the delimitation of 501 new exploratory blocks along the equatorial margin, although offering them to the market still depends on studies by other branches of the government.

With work finished off Amapá, the rig that drilled the Morpho well will move to the Potiguar basin, off the coast of Rio Grande do Norte, where it will begin drilling at the Mãe de Ouro site. To assess the extent of the Foz do Amazonas finds, Petrobras plans to drill three more wells, already licensed by Ibama, Brazil's federal environmental agency. Extreme depth and strong ocean currents slowed the operation: drilling at Morpho began nearly a year ago.