Petrobras Allocates USD 5.6 Bln to Increase Production from Mature Fields (Brazil)

Petrobras will earmark US$5.6 billion to increase to 90% the operating efficiency of its mature fields in the Campos Basin Operating Unit (UO-BC) by 2016. First quarter 2012 data show that the operating efficiency index at the fields connected to this unit are currently at about 72%.

The information was disclosed in a presentation of the Program for Increasing Operating Efficiency in the Campos Basin (PROEF) made by executive managers for Exploration and Production, Solange Guedes and Erardo Gomes Barbosa Filho, and by the general manager for the Campos Basin Operating Unit (UO-BC), Joelson Falcão Mendes.

The resources foreseen include investments and funding, including US$500 million as part of the expenditures already provided for under the Company’s 2012-2016 Business and Management Plan. Returns are expected to add up to US$1.6 to US$3.3 billion (calculated based on the NPV – net present value).

The Campos Basin Operating Unit’s operating efficiency indices, which had been 89% in 2009, dropped to 71% at the end of 2011. By 2016, the PROEF aims to increase that rate to 90%.

Operating efficiency is a ratio of what is produced on a given day and the potential under optimal conditions. “We are operating in a mature and complex basin, which has been under construction since the 1980s, with declining production. What this program aims to do is increase the efficiency of the operations in the area, because if we don’t do that, production will decline further,” said executive manager Solange Guedes.

Executive manager Erardo Gomes Barbosa Filho said “the resources are intended to recover efficiency, both of the production platforms and of the subsea systems and wells.”

Concerning the area covered by UO-BC, general manager Joelson Falcão stressed that there are 31 platforms in operation in the area covered by the program, and it accounts for about a quarter of the company’s production, about 450,000 barrels, in mature Campos Basin fields.

 Solange Guedes said that these “are pioneer assets, such as Garoupa, for example, when we took our first steps in water depths above those that we had been used to working in, and they make up our mature assets, discovered before the large Marlim Sul and Roncador accumulations were found, for example.”

Petrobras has operations managed by three Operating Units in the Campos Basin. In addition to the UO-BC, UO-Rio and UO-Espírito Santo also have activities in the region. Marlim Sul and Roncador Marlin, for example, are operated by UO-Rio and are not part of the PROEF.

[mappress]
Press Release, August 1, 2012