Petrobras has started crude oil and natural gas production from the P-68 floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the Berbigao field in the pre-salt Santos Basin.
The FPSO, located 230 km off Rio de Janeiro state in 2,280 m of water, can process 150,000 B/D of oil, compress 6 million million m³ of natural gas, store 1.6 million bbl of oil, and accommodate 154 workers.
New wells are expected to be connected to the FPSO in the coming year from both the Berbigao field and Sururu field. The project as a whole will consist of 10 production wells and seven injector wells.
Crude offloading will be done by shuttle tankers, while gas production will be transported through pre-salt gas pipelines.
P-68 is Petrobras’ fourth FPSO to come on stream this year following the startups ofP-67 at the Lula field and P-76 and P-77 at the Buzios field. Brazil awarded the Buzios field to a consortium of Petrobras, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and CNPC Exploration & Development Company after it submitted a $17-billion signing bonus as part of the 6 November transfer of rights auction.
Berbigao and Sururu fields are on the BM-S-11A block operated by Petrobras with a 42.5% interest. Partners are Shell with a 25% interest; Total, 22.5%; and Petrogal Brasil, 10%. Total picked up its stake from Petrobras last year.