Enauta winds down its drilling campaign off Brazil

Brazilian oil and gas player Enauta has concluded the drilling and completion of the last well in the first phase of its drilling programme at a field offshore Brazil.

Enauta kicked off the drilling of its first well, 7-ATL-5H-RJS, in this drilling campaign at the Atlanta field in November 2022. The estimated investment for the well was $75 million – including the interconnection with the FPSO Petrojarl I. According to the firm, the well was expected to come on stream in the first quarter of 2023.

The Brazilian player intended to drill two additional wells and connect them to the Full Development System (FDS) of the Atlanta field, slated for mid-2024, in order to optimise investments using the contracts signed in February 2022.

In March 2023, Enauta confirmed oil in a new reservoir section, named Atlanta NE accumulation, located within the Atlanta field area, which is currently under development. The firm said at the time that it had concluded the drilling and logging of well 9-ATL-8DP, identifying oil with excellent petrophysical properties at a 57-metre section (measured depth).

While Atlanta’s NE oil was originally identified in the well 9-SHEL-19D-RJS, drilled in 2006, the new well aimed to collect additional data from the accumulation simultaneously with the drilling of Atlanta’s production well 7-ATL-7HA-RJS, which is part of the six producing wells campaign of the Atlanta field’s FDS Phase I.

At the beginning of August 2023, the Brazilian firm wrapped up the drilling of production well 7-ATL-6H-RJS and disclosed that the conclusion of the well 7-ATL-7HA-RJS, the last of the production wells planned for Atlanta’s Phase 1, was expected by the third quarter of 2023. On Monday, 18 September 2023, Enauta confirmed that the completion of drilling activities at the production well 7-ATL-7HA-RJS was carried out on schedule and within budget. 

“Concluding all of Atlanta’s Phase I production wells is an important milestone for delivering the 50,000 barrels of oil per day production capacity potential from new FPSO Atlanta start by mid-2024, while also removing risks associated with Atlanta’s Phase I implementation as it advances on schedule and budget,” explained the Brazilian player.

The FPSO Petrojarl I will be replaced in 2024 by a vessel named the FPSO Atlanta – currently being converted at Dubai Drydocks World – which will be deployed at the Atlanta field and operated under ABS Class, following conversion. The FDS is expected to go online with six wells in mid-2024 and reach ten wells in 2029. 

Meanwhile, Enauta and Yinson Production have inked a multi-year deal with Akselos to deploy the latter’s Digital Twin technology on the FPSO Atlanta, which marks the first collaboration between the three players in deploying this digital solution to increase safety, enhance operational efficiency, and optimise lifecycle asset management.

John Bell, SVP at Akselos, remarked: “Energy security, integrity and reliability go hand in hand. We are excited about our partnership with Yinson and Enauta and look forward to helping protect this critical energy infrastructure in Brazil across its lifecycle. I thank the teams at Enauta and Yinson for their support and trust, and we look forward to delivering our proven and industry-leading technology on the Atlanta FPSO and beyond.”

Akselos highlights that its RB-FEA technology is 1000x faster than legacy simulation solutions and allows for limitless scale and accuracy, enabling the Enauta team to fully integrate the engineering real-time simulation into a real operational life environment.

Ricardo Portella, Project Engineer at Enauta, stated: “Being able to monitor asset integrity in real time is a key objective for us when selecting our structural health monitoring partner for the Atlanta FPSO. Akselos’ gave us confidence in its unique capability to deliver a reliable structural digital twin.”

Located in block BS-4 in the Santos Basin, at a 1,500-metre water depth, the Atlanta field is operated by Enauta Energia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, which also has a 100 per cent interest in this asset. The field has been producing since 2018.