Production of oil and natural gas has started from the Iara license in Brazil’s deepwater Santos Basin presalt from Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s (Petrobras) P-68 floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO), reported BM-S-11A consortium partner Shell Brasil Petroleo Ltda.
In water depth of 2,280 m, the P-68 FPSO can process up to 150,000 b/d of oil and 6 million cu m of gas. It will be able to store as much as 1.6 million b/d of oil (OGJ Online, Aug. 30, 2010). Operated by Petrobras, P-68 features 10 producing wells and seven injection wells. Oil production will be disposed of by relief vessels, while gas production will be affected by the pre-salt pipeline routes.
FPSO P-68 is the first of the two FPSOs already launched and to be installed on the license. The second, the P-70, is expected to come on stream in 2020.
P-68's hull was built at the Rio Grande shipyard in southern Brazil. Integration of the modules and the final unit commissioning were carried out at the Jurong Aracruz shipyard in southeastern Brazil (OGJ Online, Sept. 14, 2017).
After P-67 in Lula field and P-76 and P-77 in Buzios field, P-68 is the fourth unit to come into operation for Petrobras in 2019 (OGJ Online, Feb. 1, 2019).
The BM-S-11A Consortium for Berbigão, Sururu, and West Atapu includes Petrobras (operator, 42.5%), Shell (25%), Total (22.5%), and Petrogal Brasil (10%).