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Petrobras approves tender to

build three new FPSOs at Búzios

BRAZIL’S state-controlled oil and gas company
Petrobras will soon launch a tender for the con-
struction of three floating production, storage
and off-loading (FPSO) units for use at the
Búzios oilfield.
Petrobras said last week that the new FPSOs
would be installed within the framework of a
plan for bringing a total of 12 new floating plat-
forms online by the end of the decade. Previ-
ously, the company had said it intended to start
extracting oil from two more platforms at the
field between 2022 and 2024, as part of a cam-
paign to boost deepwater production.
The company deployed four FPSOs known
as P-74, P-75, P-76 and P-77 at Búzios in early
2018. Each vessel is capable of pumping up to Búzios lies in the Campos basin (Image: Petrobras)
150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and process-
ing 6mn cubic metres per day of associated and located in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin,
natural gas. about a decade ago. The field is the largest deep-
Those four platforms account for more than water site in the world, and in March of this year,
20% of Petrobras’ total production, Petrobras its output reached a new output record high of
said in a securities filing. It also reported that a 640,000 bpd, or 790,000 boepd including gas as
fifth FPSO was currently being constructed and well as oil.
was due to begin producing in the second half Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras is trying to
of 2022. pay down debt and recover from an ongoing
The additional FPSOs will bring output up corruption scandal, through a strategy based
from its current level, Petrobras said in a secu- on divesting non-core assets. Last December,
rities filing. “At the end of the development the company said it was planning to sell $20-
phase, [the] Búzios field is expected to produce 30bn worth of assets, including eight refiner-
more than 2mn barrels of oil equivalent per day ies, between 2020 and 2024. During that same
(boepd), [making it] Petrobras’ largest produc- period, it will focus its spending on upstream
tion asset,” the company noted. projects in the pre-salt formation, which lies in
Petrobras discovered Búzios, which is the deepwater offshore zone. ™

Shell drills dry hole at Saturno prospect

ROYAL Dutch Shell’s first well at the Saturno at another Santos Basin prospect known as Gato
prospect in Brazil has reportedly turned out to do Mato earlier this year, to sink the well.
be a dry hole. Shell, which is the second-largest oil pro-
According to drilling data from the National ducer in Brazil after state-run Petrobras, is the
Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels operator of the consortium set up to develop
(ANP), Brazil’s oil regulator, the Anglo-Dutch Saturno.
oil major spudded the well at Saturno in May Equity in the block is split 45% to Shell, 45%
and completed it on June 13. The company to the US major Chevron and 10% to Colombia’s
wrapped up drilling operations without report- state-run energy firm Ecopetrol.
ing any discoveries, the agency said. Shell and Chevron signed a 35-year produc-
Shell drilled the well at a site located about tion-sharing contract (PSC) for Saturno after
200 km from Arraial do Cabo in the state of winning an auction in Brazil’s Fifth Production
Rio de Janeiro, in water depths of 2,190-2,740 Sharing Round, which took place in 2018.
metres. It used the Brava Star, a Constellation The consortium’s failure at Saturno does not
drillship that also carried out a drilling project seem to concern Petrobras.

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