Abstract
The discovery of the Canto do Amaro oil field in November 1985 is a milestone in the exploratory history of the Potiguar Basin, which has turned out to be the most productive onshore oil field of Brazil and has opened new prospects in an area previously considered to be of minor importance. The Canto do Amaro oil field is located in the onshore part of the Potiguar Basin, Rio Grande do Norte State, in the extreme northeast corner of Brazil (Fig. 9.1). This field has nineteen producing zones, all of them in sandstones of the Upper Cretaceous Açu Fm. The Açu Fm in the Canto do Amaro area is about 650 m thick, and shows, from the base to the top, a transition from coarse sandstones deposited by braided rivers, through medium sandstones deposited by meandering rivers, to fine sandstones deposited in a marginal marine system. The fine sandstones grade upward into an argillaceous zone and then into the shallow-marine limestones of the Jandaira Fm, making up a transgressive megasequence (Fig. 9.2).
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Bagnoli, E. (1993). The Mossoró Sandstone, Canto do Amaro Oil Field, Late Cretaceous of the Potiguar Basin, Brazil: An Example of a Tidal Inlet-Channel Reservoir. In: Rhodes, E.G., Moslow, T.F. (eds) Marine Clastic Reservoirs. Frontiers in Sedimentary Geology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0160-9_9
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