Prysmian’s ‘first-of-its-kind’ FPSO subsea tie-back system in Brazil saves operator money and time for offshore oil project

Italy’s cable systems giant Prysmian has provided a solution to a tie-back project in the pre-salt layer off the coast of Brazil, which it describes as a groundbreaking system envisioned to connect fields 30 kilometers (km) away to a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit, enabling fast-tracked development of an oil project with a reduction in costs and time spent on developing project.

Prysmian, which believes sustainability and innovation go hand in hand, is pursuing transformation and evolution as priorities to support the energy transition, digitalization, and sustainability, fostering collaboration across the entire value chain, through an ecosystem of multi-stakeholder partnerships. VARD, which is building a third cable-laying vessel (CLV) for the Italian player, recently held a steel-cutting ceremony for the CLV under construction at its shipyard in Tulcea, Romania.

In line with its objectives, Prysmian has supplied a system with a large-bore steel tube and power hybrid umbilical for offshore energy development, which it sees as innovative in the Campos Basin. The project refers to a solution to connect the Wahoo field to the FPSO Valente, former FPSO Frade, about 30 kilometers away from the already-producing Frade field in Brazil’s pre-salt area.

Prysmian Offshore Specialties disclosed a load-out of long-length umbilical cables for the Wahoo tie-back project, undertaken by PRIO, formerly known as PetroRio, in Brazil, highlighting it supplied “a groundbreaking system” to connect fields 30 km away to the existing FPSO enabling both cost and time savings for the project.

The Italian cabling systems giant pointed out: “With this solution, the client has been able to develop the field without the need of an additional FPSO, saving significant cost and time in the implementation of the project. The long length umbilical was manufactured taking advantage of significant capabilities, which are the outcome of a set of recent investments to improve the capability of the plant in Vila Velha in terms of single length handling and delivering on barges.

“This delivery represents a major step in the readiness to serve emerging applications and tackle the challenges related to longer tieback, increased power consumption and larger, fast-track developments. It indeed represents the first of its kind in Brazil and opens up a new possibility for the development of mature fields and implementation of new tiebacks.”

The umbilical, which will provide hydraulic control, chemical injection as well as electrical control and signal functions to the field, is the result of a fully integrated ‘end-to-end approach’ from design to simulations, manufacture, integration, and testing managed by the Offshore Specialties BU team out of Brazil, according to Prysmian.

The ongoing revitalization program offshore Brazil is part of PRIO’s plans to create its second production cluster through the tie-back between the Wahoo and Frade fields, for which a development plan was submitted to the National Petroleum Agency, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) in December 2021.

After the Norbe VI rig was selected in July 2021 for the Frade field revitalization campaign and the Wahoo field development, it mobilized in April 2022 to start working on its drilling assignment. PRIO owns a 100% interest in the Frade field following deals with Petrobras and Chevron in January 2021 and March 2019, respectively.

The firm got hold of an operating license in April 2022 from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) to drill more wells on the Frade field, where the revitalization execution campaign enabled the collection of geological information, which serves as a base to allow the realization of a third phase of the redevelopment campaign.

Once the first well was drilled, PRIO revealed in July 2022 that it had started production at the ODP4 well in the Frade field, as part of the field revitalization campaign. At the beginning of August 2022, PRIO informed about the start of production of the second well in the Frade revitalization plan, which had an average initial production of approximately 3,500 barrels of oil per day over the first week.

The Wahoo base project covered the drilling of four producer wells and two injector wells, and the tie-back between the wells and the FPSO at the Frade field. PRIO tapped the U.S.-based McDermott in September 2023 to transport and install around 30 km of coated ten-inch rigid pipelines and associated subsea structures for the Wahoo field to connect the field to the FPSO Valente. The deal came with an extension option for a second pipeline.

In November 2023, the Brazilian operator divested its interest in a Petrobras-operated gas field off Brazil to Gas Bridge to focus on its operated assets. PRIO is also interested in expanding its portfolio, as demonstrated by its acquisition of TotalEnergies’ interest in the BM-C-32 block, containing the Itaipu field.

In addition, the firm paid close to $2 billion to take over Petrobras’ entire stake in Albacora Leste deepwater field, enabling it to take over the operatorship of the field.