QGEP hires Laguna Star drillship for Atlanta well

Brazil’s QGEP Participações S.A (QGEP) has hired the drillship Laguna Star to drill a third well of the Atlanta field’s Early Production System (EPS) located offshore Brazil.

Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção S.A., QGEP’s wholly-owned subsidiary, entered into chartering and drilling services contracts with Podocarpus C.V. e Serviços de Petróleo Constellation S.A., respectively, on September 7, 2018.

The drilling is planned for the first quarter of 2019, QGEP said in a statement on Monday.

The rig may also be allocated for the intervention activities to replace the damaged submersible pumps at the two producing wells, with the goal of increasing production of the field.

Located in Block BS-4, in the Santos Basin, Atlanta is a post-salt oil field situated 185 kilometers from the city of Rio de Janeiro, in water depths of approximately 1,500 meters.

The term estimated by the company for the drilling of the third well is approximately 90 days, and may be renewed for 90 additional days, for the intervention activities in the two current producing wells. The global amount estimated and approved in both contracts is up to $26 million.

QGEP started oil production from its Atlanta offshore field using the early production system in the form of Petrojalr 1 FPSO in May 2018.

However, due to the malfunction of the well pumps immediately after startup, the pumps on the seabed were activated reducing the previously-estimated levels of production.

As a result, QGEP in August revised its estimate for average daily production of the field to 13,000 barrels per day from the two producing wells, with the potential for a 10% variation, either higher or lower when the average daily production for the period is verified. When the field initially started production, the company expected that the production would reach daily production of 20,000 barrels of oil in the second quarter of 2018.

The new estimate will remain in effect until the beginning of production from the third well which will be drilled with the Laguna Star rig. The production from the third well is planned for the second quarter of 2019.