Brazil: Sneak Peek at Petrobras’ New Platform P-59

Petrobras will later today on Friday, July 13 christen its platform P-59 at the São Roque do Paraguaçu yard, in Maragogipe (state of Bahia). At its peak, the construction work created some 2,100 direct jobs, half of which were filled by workers from the Recôncavo Baiano region, 25% from São Roque, 15% from elsewhere in the state of Bahia and 10% from other states. Completion of the P-59 is an important milestone for Brazilian shipbuilding and represents a resumption of domestic production of this type of platform.

Similar self-raising platforms had not been built in Brazil for nearly 30 years.

The rig is capable of operating at sites with a water depth of 10 to 106 meters and drilling wells up to 9,144 meters long under elevated pressure and temperature conditions.

Petrobras invested some $360 million in building the platform, which was designed not only to meet the Company’s exploration and production operating schedules in the coming years, but also to provide support for a possible strategy of incorporating new exploratory blocks in shallow waters that are yet to be put out to bidding by the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency (ANP).

The P-59 comprises a floating hull weighing around 11,000 tonnes with three independent retractable legs each 145 meters long, which can be jacked up and down. The P-59 was built at Petrobras’ São Roque do Paraguaçu yard, where the P-60 platform, identical to P-59, is also under construction and is expected to be completed by August. The construction contracts for both platforms were signed with the Rio Paraguaçu Consortium in September 2008. These platforms are included in the Federal Government’s Growth Acceleration Program (PAC).

P-59 Technical Specifications:

• Hull dimensions (length x width x height): 74.1 m x 62.8 m x 7.9 m
• Living quarters: 110 people
• Total weight: 11,000 tons
• Drilling length: 9,144 m
• Water depth at site: 10 to 106 m
• Unit legs and shoes: three 145-m legs with shoes 14 m in diameter
• Lifting system: Driven by five electric motors at each leg vertex
• Derrick (length x width x height) 11 m x 11 m x 52 m

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Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, July 13, 2012; Image: agenciapetrobras