Petrobras declares three areas commercial

Nov. 7, 2006
Brazil's state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) declared that three new oil and gas exploration areas will be commercial by yearend.

Peter Howard Wertheim
OGJ Correspondent

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 7 -- Brazil's state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) declared that three new oil and gas exploration areas will be commercial by yearend.

Two of these areas—ESS-164 in Golfinho field in Espirito Santo state and ESS-130 in the Campos basin—already are producing.

Petrobras has called for tenders for the leasing of two floating production, storage, and offloading vessels for offshore production. The choice for leasing satisfies the requirement of a later mobilization of the two units to other areas, if necessary.

The ESS-164 FPSO will have a capacity of 10,000 cu m of gas, and the ESS-130, a capacity of 100,000 b/d of oil.

The declaration of a third commercially feasible area in Golfinho is anticipated this year. Guilherme Estrella, Petrobras E&P director, estimated that the reservoir contains 100 million boe, primarily light oil associated with gas. Estrella said Petrobras's strategy in these areas has been to produce lower volumes than in other years, although on a more frequent basis.

Although admitting an improvement in the recent work by IBAMA, the federal environment agency that frequently is accused of being slow in granting environmental licenses, Estrella said obtaining an environmental license is still a problem because the agency does not keep up with the pace of the industry.

He said the company has a yearend production target of 1.9 million b/d related to government aims for oil self-sufficiency.

To that end, five platforms are being mobilized—P-50, P-34, PMNT-1, FPSO Rio de Janeiro, and the expansion of the FPSO Capixaba.

Petrobras will hold an inaugural ceremony for the P-52 semisubmersible platform in December, said Antonio Carlos Justi, Petrobras' manager for Roncador project implementation. However, the unit will not be placed on location until first quarter 2007 when it has been commissioned and mechanical installations completed.

The P-52 will have the capacity to process 180,000 b/d of oil, to compress 9.3 million cu m/day of gas and to inject approximately 300,000 b/d of water into the reservoir. Part of Phase 2 of Module 1 of the Roncador development program, in Campos basin, the unit will be anchored in 1,800 m of water and connected to 29 wells, 19 of which are producing wells, and 10 are for water injection.