Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9 -- Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) began refining 264,000 bbl from Tupi field—its first load of oil from the presalt region—at the Henrique Lage refinery in Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo state.
Petrobras said Tupi’s oil is rated as “paraphinic” and, according to the Bureau of Mines characterization factor, its specific gravity is 29.2° gravity, equivalent to a density of 0.877.
“This oil’s sulfur level is low—the lower, the easier it is to meet future, increasingly strict specifications for all derivatives and particularly for naphtha and diesel,” Petrobras said.
Additionally, it said oil coming from the Tupi has “low naphthenic acidity and good yield, as it does not generate fuel oil, the product with the least value added.”
The Tupi reservoir lies more than 3,000 m under the seabed, beneath 2,000 m of salt, in 2,140 m of water about 300 km off Sao Paulo state.
Recoverable volumes in the Tupi area are estimated at 5-8 billion bbl of “high-quality, light oil and natural gas,” according to Petrobras.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
Photo from ExxonMobil Corp.
Photos from Repsol SA.
