Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 03 2020
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It used the Sleipnir, the largest crane vessel in the world, to assemble the jacket, platform and liv- ing quarters module at the Peregrino field.
Equinor will now send a team of about 880 workers to the site to prepare the Peregrino C platform, and it will be using the GranEnergia Olympia floatel to house those workers. Accord- ing to the Norwegian company, the platform will support a total of 350 onshore and offshore jobs in Brazil after it begins operating later this year.
Equity in the Peregrino project is divided between Equinor, the operator, with 60%, and
the state-owned Chinese company Sinochem, with 40%. The field straddles two licence areas in the Campos Basin, BM-C-7 and BM-C-47. It lies about 85km from the coast in 100-metre- deep water.
Equinor and Sinochem have been utilising two fixed wellhead platforms and a floating pro- duction, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel to develop the Peregrino field. They are install- ing a third fixed wellhead platform to support Peregrino Phase II, which is set to cost about $3.5bn.
Wärtsilä to carry out gas-to-power project in Brazil
FINLAND’S Wärtsilä has agreed to work with Rio Amazonas Energia (RAESA) on a project that will expand natural gas consumption in Brazil.
Last week, LNG World News reported that Wärtsilä had signed a contract with RAESA on the upgrade of the Cristiano Rocha ther- mal power plant (TPP) in Manaus. Under the contract, the Finnish company will convert the TPP into a 100% natural gas-fired operation. It is slated to complete the project in the first half of 2021.
The station has been burning residual fuel oil since its launch in 2006. Since then, however, it has added gas to its fuel mix.
It was able to do so because the national oil company (NOC) Petrobras built a pipeline to transport gas from the Arara production com- plex in Urucu to Manaus.
That 663-km link has now been supplying gas to the Cristiano Rocha TPP for about a decade, and RAESA is keen to increase its con- sumption of the cleaner-burning fuel. To do
so, it will have to switch the five Wärtsilä 46GD dual-fuel combustion engines that the Cristiano Rocha TPP uses to generate power over to five Wärtsilä 50SG gas-fuelled engines.
According to LNG World News, the Finnish company will put the new engines in place and carry out all of the system upgrades needed to complete the transition from residual fuel oil to gas. It will also service the engines under a sepa- rate long-term agreement signed with RAESA.
The switch will reduce emissions at the TPP. It will also raise the facility’s generating capac- ity from 85 MW to 92 MW. This, in turn, will improve RAESA’s chances of securing an exten- sion to its power purchase agreement (PPA) with Brazil’s national grid operator. The compa- ny’s current PPA is due to expire in 2025.
The new engines will also help RAESA reduce its operating expenses. The company has been renting additional generating equip- ment in order to raise the output of the Cristiano Rocha TPP, but it will be spared that cost once Wärtsilä has completed the project.
The Finnish company is installing five new engines at the Cristiano Rocha TPP (Photo: Wärtsilä)
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