Extension of the Paraná Basin to offshore Brazil: Implications for coalbed methane evaluation

Coalbed methane (CBM) is a worldwide exploration target of the petroleum industry. In Brazil, the most important coal-bearing succession is associated with the Permian Rio Bonito Formation of the Paraná Basin. The gas-prone areas are located at the southeastern margin of the Paraná Basin and possibly in the offshore region of the northern part of the Pelotas Basin. Coalfields end abruptly at the present day shoreline, a result of rifting of Gondwana and the evolution of the South Atlantic Ocean. All geologic indicators suggest that in pre-rift times the coal seams extended further eastwards, probably now lying deeply buried below the sedimentary succession of the Pelotas Basin. The present paper discusses structural, stratigraphic, seismic and aeromagenetic data that support the preservation of continental crust beneath ocean sediment. If the coal beds had similar lateral extent to known onshore coals, and coal beds extended across the projected extension of the Parana basin, and there was a conservative 5 m of cumulative coal thickness, then a potential methane volume can be estimated for this newly inferred resource. Average onshore coal gas content is 32 scf/ton (1.00 m³/ton). If this is similar in the offshore coal deposits, then the hypothetical methane volume in the offshore area could be in excess of 1.9 × 10¹² scf (56 × 10⁹ m³). Metamorphism from dikes associated with rifting are potential complicating factors in these deposits, and since no borehole reaching the deep-lying strata in the offshore area are available, this is a hypothetical gas resource with a certain level of uncertainty which should be tested in the future by drilling a deep borehole.