Brazil: Petrobras Starts Operations with FPSO Cidade de Santos in Urugua Field

Petrobras  announces the entry into operation of FPSO Cidade de Santos in the Uruguá field, by means of the interconnection of the Uruguá-6 well.

The Uruguá-8 and Uruguá-10 wells have also been linked to the FPSO. They are expected to start producing later this week and to reach a production of 25,000 bpd in the field. The Uruguá field’s full oil production capacity (35 bpd) is hoped to be reached late this year, with the interconnection of the fourth well in December.

The FPSO will be used to develop the Uruguá and Tambaú fields, located in the Uruguá Pole. This is the first FPSO installed for the development of two oil and gas fields in the Santos Basin. The vessel is moored 160 km offshore, in water depths of 1300 meters, and is capable of producing 10 million cubic meters of natural gas per day and 35,000 bpd of oil and condensate, and capacity to store up to 740,000 barrels of oil.

The reservoir of the Uruguá field holds 33º API light oil and non-associated gas. The development plan for the field foresees four horizontal oil wells and five gas producer wells, which will be connected directly to the FPSO; The Tambaú field will have three horizontal wells of non-associated gas, which will be interconnected to a submarine production manifold to be connected to FPSO Cidade de Santos.

The oil produced at the fields will be offloaded via shuttle tankers, while the gas will flow over an 18-inch, 174-km long pipeline, which has already been launched and will connect the FPSO to the PMXL-1 platform, in the Mexilhão field. The gas will later flow to the Monteiro Lobato Gas Treatment Unit, located in Caraguatatuba, São Paulo, where the natural gas will be specified in order to be inserted into the transportation network. The works at PMXL-1 and at UTGCA are in their final phase and are expected to be completed in the second half of 2010.

The Company’s expectation is that by late 2012, all Uruguá and Tambaú gas wells will have been interconnected, allowing FPSO Cidade de Santos to reach its full gas production capacity, depending on the market demand.

The Uruguá-Tambaú project received yesterday the Operational License granted by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewed Natural Resources (ibama) and the Infrastructure built for the project is also expected to be used to facilitate other projects in adjacent fields, such as the Pirapitanga and Tambuatá ones, which are located in the Uruguá Pole as well.

[mappress]

Source: Petrobras, July 15, 2010: