Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 -- Brazilian officials have acknowledged that state-owned Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) is having problems increasing production in existing fields with new offshore platforms and floating units.
Petrobras Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa, in a conference call with investors, admitted that the firm has problems bringing the new units to full production and operating them at installed capacity.
"We're looking for other ways to make full use of them," he said. "It's part of the process. Some oil wells respond in a different way because of the geological structure of the deposit. We still don't have the solution."
Average production by Petrobras during January-September 2007 reached 1.796 million b/d, an increase of 33,000 b/d over the same period in 2006. New platforms and floating units installed over the past 21 months had been expected to add 440,000 b/d of production.
The Petrobras Espadarte floating production and storage unit with a capacity of 100,000 b/d, launched in January, produced an average of just 28,000 b/d in the first 9 months of 2007.
"Espadarte is producing less than expected. It connects to the deposit in a different way from what was predicted. We're looking for other oil wells to connect with the additional capacity," Barbassa explained.
He also said Albacora Leste was launched in April 2006 with a capacity of 180,000 b/d but has produced an average of 148,000 b/d.
The country's offshore units have been hit by a variety of difficulties in the past year.
Brazilian federal police arrested three top executives of Petrobras on July 10, along with the directors of three shipyards and others for alleged involvement in fixing repair contract bids for at least three offshore platforms (OGJ, July 23, 2007, p. 30).
Earlier, oil and gas production was disrupted by fire aboard Petrobras's P-50 floating production, storage, and offloading unit in Albacora Leste field (OGJ Online, July 9, 2007).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
