Petrobras starts commercial production at Sapinhoá field, in pre-salt of Santos Basin

Tuesday, Jan 08, 2013

Petrobras announces that with the start up of platform Cidade de São Paulo, on January 5th, it has initiated the commercial production of Sapinhoá field, located in block BM-S-9, in the pre-salt of Santos Basin. This field has started its production ahead of schedule, as the start up date considered in Petrobras 2012-2016 Business Plan was January, 13th.

Cidade de São Paulo is a FPSO platform (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading). It is anchored at a water depth of 2,140 meters, 310 km off the coast, and is capable of processing 120,000 barrels of oil and 5 million m3 of gas per day. Well 1-SPS-55, the first one to be interconnected to the platform, can produce over 25,000 barrels of oil per day. Its production, however, will be restricted to 15,000 barrels of oil per day, until the commissioning of natural gas processing and reinjection systems, expected to last 90 days, is concluded. The produced oil, which is of intermediate density (30º API) and high quality, will be transported through tankers.

The gas not used for reinjection will be transported through the Sapinhoá-Lula-Mexilhão Gas Pipeline to the Monteiro Lobato Gas Treatment Unit (UTGCA), located in Caraguatatuba, on the coast of São Paulo state. Another 10 wells (five production and five injection) will be interconnected to the platform in the upcoming months. A peak production of 120,000 barrels of oil per day is expected for the first half of 2014.

Sapinhoá field is one of the biggest oil fields in Brazil, with a total recoverable volume estimated at 2.1bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe), and goes into commercial production 4 and a half years after its discovery in July/2008. The Sapinhoá Field Development Plan also sets out a second platform: FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela, whose hull is in the conversion phase, and will have capacity for 150,000 barrels of oil per day and 6 million m3/day of gas. It is expected to go on stream in the second half of 2014.

Block BM-S-9 is operated by Petrobras (45%), in partnership with BG E&P Brasil Ltda (30%) and Repsol Sinopec Brasil S.A. (25%).

Source: Petrobras

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