The Cidade de Marica floating production, storage, and offloading vessel reached on Dec. 25 the Lula Alto area of Lula field in the Santos basin presalt. The vessel departed on Dec. 19 the Brasa shipyard in Niteroi in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro.
Expected to begin production in first-quarter 2016, the 346.5-m-long, 32.6-m-high FPSO has the ability to produce 150,000 b/d of oil, store 1.6 million bbl of oil, and compress 6 million cu m/day of gas.
Anchored 250 km off Rio de Janeiro in 2,120 m of water, Cidade de Marica will now undergo installation of its mooring lines. The vessel will be connected to 10 production wells and seven injections wells, and gas will be transported to shore by an undersea pipeline.
The FPSO earlier this year underwent module lifting and integration at the Brasa shipyard (OGJ Online, July 13, 2015).
Cidade de Marica will be the fifth FPSO to operate at Lula field, which is already Brazil’s largest domestic producer of oil and natural gas, Petroleo Brasilierio SA (Petrobras) says.
The Cidade de Saquarema FPSO docked on Dec. 20 at the Brasa shipyard for lifting and integration of processing plant modules (OGJ Online, Dec. 22, 2015). The Cidade de Itaguai FPSO started production on July 31, one month after it arrived to the Iracema North area of Lula field (OGJ Online, Aug. 3, 2015).
Presalt oil and gas production in November operated by the company reached 1.023 million bo/d, an increase of 1.8% over October output.
Lula field in Block BM-S-11 is operated by Petrobras with 65% interest. Partners are BG E&P Brasil Ltda. 25% and Petrogal Brasil SA 10%.