The fifth vessel for the Petrobras-operated Buzios Field has started its voyage from the MODEC shipyard in China to South American nation Brazil.
Petrobras said that the floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) platform ‘Almirante Barroso’ will carry out navigation tests for five days in Chinese waters to then make stops in Singapore and Mauritius, where it will supply and exchange crews until its arrival in Brazil at the BrasFELs shipyard, in Angra dos Reis (RJ), in October.
There, it will carry out the final stage of commissioning and acceptance tests.
Production with Almirante Barroso is scheduled for 2023. It has capacity to produce up to 150,000 barrels of oil and process six million cubic metres of natural gas daily. The platform also has the capacity to inject 220,000 barrels of water per day.
Petrobras said the FPSO will be interconnected to 10 wells in the Buzios Field. At present, Buzios produces some 575,000 barrels of oil and 23 million cubic metres of gas daily.
MODEC’s contract was for the engineering, procurement, construction, mobilisation, chartering, and operations of the FPSO, including topsides processing equipment as well as hull and marine systems. An affiliate – SOFEC – handled the drive of the design and supply of the spread mooring system for the floating unit.
It is the 15th platform built by MODEC for the Brazilian offshore.
Petrobras plans to add a total of 14 vessels offshore Brazil in the next four years, according to its Strategic Plan 2022-2026. The plan listed 15 FPSOs altogether.
The first, the Guanabara MV31, was placed at the Mero field in the pre-salt of the Santos Basin earlier this month, with a capacity to produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day.
Another, the Anna Nery, began its voyage last week. This vessel is due for Brazil’s Campos basin.
Five FPSOs are scheduled to achieve first oil in 2023, adding approximately 630,000 bpd of production capacity. Three FPSOs are scheduled for first production in 2024, with total approximate production capacity of 505,000 bpd.
In 2025, three FPSOs are slated to start producing, with peak production capacities totaling 540,000 bpd. Three more FPSOs are expected to come onstream in 2026, adding 570,000 bpd to Petrobras’ output. If all goes as planned, the 14 FPSOs added in the next four years will add over 2.2 million bpd.
