Equinor Energy AS has submitted a declaration of commerciality and plans of development for Raia Manta and Raia Pintada fields in the BM-C-33 concession in Brazil’s Campos basin to Agência Nacional de Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis (ANP).
The concession, which lies about 200 km from shore in water depths up to 2,900 m, will be developed through a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a processing capacity of 16 million cu m/d of gas and an average natural gas export flow of about 14 million cu m/day. Start-up is expected in 2028. Oil and gas reserves of over 1 billion boe are expected to be recovered (OGJ Online, May 8, 2023).
Development of the fields will be the first project in Brazil to treat gas offshore and be connected to the national grid without further onshore processing. The sales gas is planned to be exported through a 200 km offshore gas pipeline from the FPSO to Cabiúnas, in the city of Macaé, Rio de Janeiro state. Liquids are planned to be offloaded by shuttle tankers.
Lifetime average CO2 intensity for the fields is estimated to be below 6 kg/boe. The low carbon intensity is enabled through combined cycle gas turbines on the FPSO, which combines a gas turbine with a steam turbine to take advantage of the excess heat that would otherwise be lost.
Development and operation of the fields will require total investment of about $9 billion and have the potential to meet 15% of total Brazilian gas demand when in production.
Equinor is operator of BM-C-33 with 35% interest. Partners are Repsol Sinopec Brasil (35%), and Petrobras (30%).
