8th FPSO starts making its way to Petrobras’ largest producing field

November 12, 2025, by Dragana Nikše

Another floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit destined for a field in Brazil’s Santos Basin operated by the country’s oil and gas giant Petrobras has started its journey from Hanwha Ocean’s shipyard in South Korea.

As disclosed by Petrobras, FPSO P-79 departed the South Korean shipyard in Geoje-Si on November 11. The unit will be towed to its location in the Búzios field with the crew on board, which the Brazilian giant believes will speed up the start of production.

The FPSO is expected to reach its destination in February 2026, with the start of production to follow suit in August 2026. The unit has a capacity to produce 180,000 barrels of oil and compress 7.2 million cubic meters of gas per day.

The P-79 project will comprise 14 wells, including eight producers and six water-alternating-gas (WAG) injectors.

The Brazilian player says this, and the start-up of the field’s seventh unit, which is planned for December, will increase the field’s installed production capacity by approximately 15.6%, reaching around 1.3 million barrels per day.

“The arrival of the manned platform, similar to what was done with the P-78, has proven to be a successful strategy to reduce the time to start production. This is the eighth unit out of the twelve planned for the field,” said Renata Baruzzi, Petrobras’ Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation.

“Our expectation is that we will be able to bring forward first oil by two months compared to what is set out in our Strategic Plan. This is yet another result of the dedication of the entire Petrobras team, combined with supplier negotiations, detailed planning, and, above all, the discipline to deliver what was planned.“

The Búzios field is located in ultra-deep waters of the Santos Basin in depths up to 2,100 meters, 180 kilometers off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Six FPSOs are already working at the field: P-74, P-75, P-76, P-77, Almirante Barroso, and Almirante Tamandaré.

Operating at the Búzios field since February 2025, Almirante Tamandaré reached a record instantaneous production flow equivalent to 270,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) on October 25, 2025.

The seventh platform, P-78, left Seatrium’s Benoi shipyard in Singapore on July 13 and reached its destination on September 30. The following month, the field surpassed the milestone of 1 million barrels of oil produced per day, making it Petrobras’ largest producing field.