By an OGJ correspondent
RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr. 9 -- The Brazilian subsidiary of Royal Dutch/Shell Group in July will become the first non-Brazilian firm to produce petroleum off Brazil when it begins oil production of 70,000 b/d from its deepwater Bijupirá and Salema oil fields in the Campos basin.
The fields, in water 400-870 m deep, have reserves of 188 million bbl of 28-31° gravity oil and 62 bcf of gas. Operator Shell holds an 80% stake, while Petrobras owns 20%.
Shell will produce from its Fluminense floating production, storage, and offloading vessel, slated to arrive in Brazil this month. It has a processing capacity of 81,000 b/d of oil, a water injection capacity of 92,000 b/d, and storage capacity of 1.2 million bbl of oil.
Block BC-10
Shell also is trying to overcome technological problems to guarantee commercial production on Block BC-10 in the Campos basin 170 km northeast of Bijupira and Salema fields. Shell is operator in partnership with Petrobras and ExxonMobil Corp.
Block BC-10 covers an area of 2,958 sq km on which the partners have invested more than $150 million, drilling eight wells, three of which did not encounter oil.
The five technical discoveries in the region are in different reservoirs more than 25 km apart, and preliminary work indicates that the area holds reserves greater than 300 million bbl of heavy oil.
However, the exploration deadline for the remaining area of Block BC-10 will expire in August. If commercial production does not start up prior to August, Shell must return the block to the National Petroleum Agency (ANP), which will put it up for tenders again. Shell is working with ANP to overcome this problem.