Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 45 2022

LatAmOil BRAZIL LatAmOil

Altogether, the company and its partners will gas (GHG) emissions through the use of com-
drill 19 wells at the field during the first phase bined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs), and Equinor
of the project. said in its statement that this equipment would
Phase 1 of the Bacalhau expansion project make the FPSO the lowest-emission autono-
is expected to produce 220,000 barrels per day mous vessel in the world.
(bpd) of oil with support from a floating produc- The Bacalhau field was discovered by Brazil’s
tion, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel that national oil company (NOC) Petrobras in 2012,
has already been installed at the field. before Equinor Brazil took charge of the field in
The Bacalhau FPSO is expected to reduce 2016. Upon the launch of the expansion project,
emissions by 110,000 tonnes per year (tpy) Bacalhau will become the first pre-salt field to be
of CO2 equivalent. It will reduce greenhouse developed by an international operator. ™

Petrobras finalises sale of

SIX refinery to F&M Brazil

BRAZIL’S national oil company (NOC) Petro- For its part, the NOC has agreed to continue
bras revealed on November 4 that it had final- providing the bank with the necessary support
ised the sale of Paraná Xisto, the entity formed to for the operation of the plant “for a period of up
hold its shares in Unidade de Industrializacao de to 15 months, under a service agreement [and]
Xisto (SIX), a refinery in Paraná State that pro- avoiding any operational interruption,” the
cesses oil shale. statement said.
In a statement, Petrobras explained that it It also noted that F&M Brazil had signed a
had sold the nearly 6,000 barrel per day (bpd) lease agreement with Paraná Xisto on Novem-
facility to Forbes Resources Brazil Holding SA ber 4 that was designed to preserve the conti-
(F&M Brazil), an entity owned by Forbes & nuity of the research projects that Petrobras has
Manhattan Resources, a privately-owned com- designed and is carrying out in experimental
pany Canadian financial institution. It said that facilities in and around the SIX plant.
the Canadian bank had agreed to pay a total The SIX refinery is located in São Mateus do
sum of $41.6mn to Petrobras for the asset and Sul, a city in the state of Paraná. It is capable of
had paid the NOC an amount of $38.6mn on processing some 5,800 tonnes per day (tpd) of
November 4, in addition to the amount of $3mn oil shale and focuses primarily on the produc-
already paid when it signed its sale and purchase tion of naphtha, LPG, fuel oil, other hydrocar-
contract. bon-based fuels and sulphur.
Under that contract, F&M Brazil is due to Petrobras signed a preliminary agreement
assume control over the management of the SIX with F&M Brazil on the sale of the SIX plant
plant immediately and may make contingent in November 2021. The deal has been under
payments to Petrobras later. review by Brazilian authorities since then. ™

The SIX refinery processes oil shale and has a capacity of 6,000 bpd (Image:

Week 44 09•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11