By Neil Hodgson, Karyna Rodriguez and Lauren Found, Searcher, and Pablo Rodriguez and Bruno Conti, ANCAP
The success of the Orange Basin in Namibia is mostly thanks to a thick Aptian drift source rock. However, it suffers from a lack of overburden for its Turonian source rock, leaving it immature. In contrast, not only are the Aptian and Turonian source rocks present in the Uruguay and Southern Brazil conjugate margin as well, but both are buried deep enough to be mature. The advantages of Namibia are therefore not unique to Gondwana’s rift margins, but actually may be surpassed by twin blessings of mature Turonian and Aptian source intervals in the as yet undrilled Pelotas and Punta del Este Basins.