Brazilian giant Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) started production at the Lapa field, in the Santos basin pre-salt layer offshore Brazil.
Image of the Cidade de Caraguatatuba, from Sofec. |
Petrobras and its partners in the BM-S-9 consortium started the oil and natural gas production on 19 December through the FPSO Cidade de Caraguatatuba.
This is the third unit to enter operation in the pre-salt this year, and the 11th largest definitive system operating in this layer. In addition, Lapa is the third pre-salt field of the Santos basin to start production, after Lula and Sapinhoá.
Lapa is about 270km from the coast of the São Paulo state, at 2140m water depth. The Cidade de Caraguatatuba has the capacity to process 100,000 b/d of oil, compress 5 MMcm of gas, and is interconnected to the Lapa field through production well 7-LPA-1D.
Production start-up in the Lapa field takes place at a time of expressive results in the pre-salt layer. Oil production operated by Petrobras at this frontier already exceeds 1.2 MMbbl/d, and in November, the company said it reached the historical mark of 1 billion bbl produced in the pre-salt layer.
“This achievement was possible upon start-up of 10 large production systems in only six years,” Petrobras said.
The systems include: Lula Pilot (FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis), Sapinhoá Pilot (FPSO Cidade de São Paulo), Lula Nordeste Pilot (FPSO Cidade de Paraty), Lula/Iracema Sul Area (FPSO Cidade de Mangaratiba), Sapinhoá Norte (FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela), Lula/Iracema Norte Area (FPSO Cidade de Itaguaí), Lula Alto (FPSO Cidade de Maricá), Lula Central (FPSO Cidade de Saquarema), as well as FPSO Cidade de Anchieta and P-58, both in Parque das Baleias. The pre-salt wells that were interconnected to already existing production systems in the Campos Basin also contributed to this record.
The Lapa field is in the BM-S-9 concession, operated by Petrobras (45%), in partnership with BG E&P Brasil – a subsidiary company of Royal Dutch Shell (30%) – and Repsol Sinopec Brasil (25%).