Production from Brazilian FPSO halted once again

Brazilian oil and gas player Enauta has temporarily interrupted production from a field located offshore Brazil only days after completing the preventive maintenance activities for a floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, which is carrying out operations on this field.

Enauta started preventive maintenance at the FPSO Petrojarl I in May 2023 and the production at the Atlanta field was expected to resume in mid-June, with the resumption of production of the wells 7-ATL-4HB-RJS (4HB) and 7-ATL-5H-RJS (5H). The field came back online at the end of June, following the conclusion of the preventive maintenance at the FPSO.

After resuming operations, new tests were performed to identify the causes of repetitive failures in the subsea pumping equipment adopted for Atlanta’s Early Production System (EPS). Come July 2023, the Brazilian player identified that occurrences were concentrated in the subsea pumping electrical system and temporarily halted Atlanta’s production.

According to Enauta, preventive and corrective measures were already anticipated with suppliers and partners. As a result of this, Atlanta’s production is expected to resume by early September 2023. As the company bought the FPSO OSX-2 for Atlanta’s Full Development System (FDS) last year, this FPSO, known as the FPSO Atlanta will replace the FPSO Petrojarl I.

The company claims that the implementation of the FPSO Atlanta and its Definitive Production System advances on schedule with the first oil expected by mid-2024. The FDS is expected to go online originally with six wells in mid-2024, reaching ten wells in 2029. 

“By the third quarter, several important milestones should attest to the near conclusion schedule of the FPSO Atlanta and the conclusion of Phase I’s six production wells campaign. The Definitive Production System has over 98 per cent of its items contracted including the permanent subsea pumping modules at state-of-the-art technology with a superior track record,” explained Enauta.

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.

Based on Enauta’s data, its total production in Brazil reached 281.8 thousand barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in June 2023, or average daily production of 9,400 boe. During 2023, the average daily production was 15,300 boe, including oil and gas.