SBM Offshore’s behemoth FPSO steps into Brazil to work at Petrobras’ mega deepwater field

The Netherlands-based SBM Offshore is closing in on the first oil from its new floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit as the vessel has reached Brazilian waters and will be deployed at a huge field in the pre-salt Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil, where it will work for the country’s state-owned energy heavyweight, Petrobras.

Following a binding letter of intent (LoI) in February 2021 and the signing of contracts with Petrobras for the 26.25-year lease and operation of the FPSO Almirante Tamandaré in July 2021, a naming ceremony was held for the vessel, which was named after Joaquim Marques Lisboa, Marquis of Tamandaré and a 19th-century military hero and admiral of Brazil’s Imperial Army.

The FPSO, which left the China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI) shipyard in China on July 31, to come to the Búzios field, where it is due to be deployed as the first high-capacity unit to be installed. The FPSO Almirante Tamandaré has arrived in Brazil to join the other five FPSOs operating in the field: P-74, P-75, P-76, P-77, and Almirante Barroso.

With the potential to produce up to 225,000 barrels of oil (bpd) and process 12 million cubic meters of gas per day, the FPSO Almirante Tamandaré comes equipped with technologies for decarbonization, such as the closed flare, which, together with other equipment, slashes emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG).

The FPSO also features technologies for heat recovery, which curb the demand for additional energy. Aside from this, the vessel sports equipment for removing CO2 from the gas and its subsequent injection into the reservoir. This unit will have an estimated greenhouse gas emission intensity below 10 kg CO2e/boe.

Located 180 km off the coast, the Búzios field came online in 2018 and is said to be the largest field in the world in ultra-deep waters, which already accounts for more than 20% of Petrobras’ total production. The Búzios consortium, operating in the field, comprises Petrobras (operator), the Chinese partner companies: CNOOC, CNODC, and PPSA –  the company managing the production sharing contracts.

The FPSO’s design incorporates SBM Offshore’s Fast4Ward new build, multi-purpose hull, which was nearing completion at the yard in February 2023. The first oil is slated for 2024. The vessel’s arrival in Brazil comes shortly after the Dutch player divested a minority stake in an FPSO, which is working on another of Petrobras’ giant oil fields in the Santos Basin.

SBM Offshore is constructing the FPSO Jaguar for ExxonMobil’s Whiptail oilfield development, which is the U.S. energy giant’s sixth project in the Stabroek block offshore Guyana. The Dutch player also completed another FPSO vessel’s final module lifts at Seatrium’s yard in Singapore in September 2024. This FPSO will work on ExxonMobil’s fourth oil project in the Stabroek block.