TechnipFMC’s flagship deepwater pipelay and construction vessel Deep Blue has embarked on a major subsea project, laying pipeline on Equinor’s Peregrino Phase 2 project in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.
The vessel will install rigid and flexible pipelines as well as PLET structures in 328-ft water depth approximately 53 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The second phase will add an estimated 273 million bbl of recoverable oil to the Peregrino field. Deep Blue will participate in an installation phase that will take place across two campaigns, the mobilizations of which will be carried out at the Evanton spoolbase in northern Scotland. Another TechnipFMC will take part in the project at a later date.
The Peregrino field consists of two fixed wellhead platforms and a floating production, storage, and offloading unit. A third fixed wellhead platform is being added to the field, with first oil expected at the end of 2020. Phase 2 involves increasing the number of production wells in the southwestern part of the development by drilling 15 oil-producing wells and 6 water-injection wells.
Earlier this year, Deep Blue installed 310 miles of reeled pipe-in-pipe technology during a subsea tieback in the southern portion of the Green Canyon area in the US Gulf of Mexico. As a deepwater pipelay and subsea construction vessel, it uses the reel-lay and J-lay pipelay methods to install risers and flowlines.