Brazil's Petrobras Begins FPSO Construction in Santos Basin

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Cordoba, Argentina)--Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE:PBR) (Petrobras) (Rio de Janeiro), Brazil's state-owned oil company, is beginning hull and module construction for four crude oil and natural gas floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels. The four production units will be built in the Buzios offshore production field, which is located under the sub-salt layer in the Santos Basin.

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The Brazilian government set aside the specific Buzios areas in which the project will be built for exclusive use by Petrobras. When production begins, Petrobras will pay petroleum royalties for 5 billion barrels of crude oil. When it reaches the production target, the production field will be returned to the Brazilian oil regulator, the National Petroleum Agency (Rio de Janeiro), for new tenders.

Each platform will have a production capacity of 150,000 barrels per day (BBL/d), with 247 standard cubic feet per day of natural gas and a crude oil storage capacity of 1.4 million barrels. Each vessel will be powered by four 30-megawatt, natural gas-fired, LM2500 PGT25+ aeroderivative turbines.

Petrobras named the platforms P-74, P-75, P-76 and P-77. Petrobras signed a $1.7 billion contract with Enseada Industria Naval S.A. (Rio de Janeiro) for construction of the four hulls in the Inhauma Shipyard, in Rio de Janeiro.

Petrobras signed a $1.6 billion contract with Consorcio Rig (Rio de Janeiro) for the P-75 and P-77 platform topsides module construction and integration. For the P-74 platform module construction and integration, Petrobras signed a $740 million contract; for the P-76 platform, Petrobras signed a $900 million contract with Consorcio Techinip-Techint (Rio de Janeiro). The total investment value of all four platforms modules' construction and integration is $3.3 billion.

The four units are scheduled to begin oil production between 2016 and 2017. Petrobras has a huge amount of planned platforms to increase production in the Santos and Campos basins, and the company expects to double production capacity to reach 4 billion crude oil BBL/d in Brazil through 2020.

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