Record oil production from Campos, Santos basins in February

Brazilian oil company Petrobras has announced that its February figure for total oil and natural gas production in Brazil was 2.327 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), up 0.7% on the January figure of 2.310 million boed.

Including output managed by Petrobras for its partners in Brazil, February’s production was 2.476 million boed, up 1.5% on the January figure (2.438 million boed).

In February, Petrobras oil production in Brazil averaged 1.923 million barrels per day (bpd), up 0.3% on the January output figure of 1,917 million bpd. Including the output managed for partner companies, oil production in Brazil was 2.021 million bpd, up 1.2% on the January figure of 1.997 million bpd.

Pre-salt record output

In February, oil production in the Santos and Campos Basin pre-salt fields reached a record daily average output of 385,000 bpd, up 7.5% on January’s previous record of 358,000 bpd. Daily output on February 27th set a new record of 412,000 bpd.

In February, the SPS-77 became the first well to come on-stream with a buoyancy supported riser (BSR). It was connected to FPSO Cidade de São Paulo in the Santos Basin pre-salt Sapinhoá field. The well has been showing excellent performance and is currently the best production well in Brazil. Its output of approximately 36,000 bpd contributed to February’s monthly and daily records. Three additional BSRs are due to be deployed in the first half of this year and output from the pre-salt layer will continue to rise with the interconnection of eight new production wells to FPSOs Cidade de São Paulo and Cidade de Paraty. The output and processing capacity of these FPSOs will reach its maximum by the third quarter of this year.

In addition to these favorable results and the projection for 2014, improvements in operational performance are being achieved at an ever-increasing pace, including:

• Record completion time (109 days) for well SPH-05, at a water depth of 2,126 meters and with a total well depth of 5,334 meters. Drilling took 60 days and completion a further 49 days, setting a new record for drilling and completion operations in the pre-salt (the previous record of 135 days was set for well SPH-4).

• Deployment of the second BSR on FPSO Cidade de Paraty, which took less than a third of the time taken to deploy the first BSR on FPSO Cidade de São Paulo (165 days as opposed to 50 days).

Temporary production stoppages

The decommissioning process on FPSO Brasil in the Roncador field began in February and the FPSO will finally be shut down this Monday (3/31). Its wells will be gradually reallocated to other platforms operating in the same field (P-52 and P-54), an operation expected to be completed by the 4th quarter of this year.

Also in Campos Basin, platform P-20 is still halted in the Marlim field as repairs continue following fire damage to the platform’s chemicals system. This interruption is costing the company some 22,000 bpd in lost output. Operations are expected to restart in the next few days, once the reports and authorization have been received. Authorizations from the DNV (Det Norske Veritas) Classification Society and the Brazilian Navy have already been received..

The reported rise in output in February was achieved despite these temporary losses and maintenance shutdowns on platform PCE-1 (Enchova field) and FPSO Cidade de Anchieta (Baleia Azul), both in the Campos Basin.

New production wells in February

New wells that came on-stream in February include, in particular:

– Well ABL-78 (Albacora Leste field) with output of 12,000 bopd, up 43% on the projected output;

– Well PRM-09, which enabled Piranema field to achieve a daily output record of 14,800 bopd;

– Well MRL-220 (Marlim field), which boosted output by 6,800 bopd.

In addition to the wells mentioned above, a further three wells cam on-stream in the Bijupirá-Salema field, operated by Shell, and on February 23rd, the Araracanga field started up in the Amazonas Operational Unit (UO-AM), with output of 400,000 m3/d of natural gas and boosting liquids output by 100 bopd.

Natural gas production

February’s natural gas production in Brazil was 64.085 million cubic meters per day (m³/d), up 2.5% on January’s figure of 62.517 million m³/d. Including the production managed by Petrobras for associate companies, natural gas output was 72.344 million m³/d, up 3.1% on the January figure.

Potential and Operational Efficiency

Slower decline in the output potential of the Baleia Azul (FPSO Cidade Anchieta) and Jubarte (P-57) fields contributed to February’s results.

Improvements in operational efficiency on platforms P-53 (Marlim Leste), P-52 and P-54 (Roncador), with efficiency reaching 99.8%, 99.1% and 99.2% respectively, also helped significantly boost production in February.

Rising production in 2014

On the last day of 2013, Platform P-55 started up in Module 3 of the Roncador field, with output capacity of 180,000 bpd. Operations to interconnect new wells are ongoing.

Platform P-58 started up in Parque das Baleias, northern Campos Basin, on March 17th through pre-salt production well 7-BFR-7-ESS. This well has been showing excellent productivity with 20,000 barrels per day. Two additional wells of similar potential are due to start-up in April. With output capacity of 180,000 barrels per day, P-58 is approximately 85 km off the Espírito Santo coast, at a water depth of 1,400 meters. In the upcoming months, 15 production wells, eight in the pre-salt and seven in the post-salt, as well as nine injection wells, will be interconnected to P-58 through 250 km of flexible pipelines and two subsea manifolds (equipment for transferring oil from well to platform).

Well JUB-45, connected to FPSO Capixaba, also came on-stream in March with output potential of 18,500 bopd, and platform P-63 began injecting water in Papa-Terra field, in the southern Campos Basin.

In addition, platforms P-62 and P-61 will start-up in the Campos Basin post-salt during the first half of this year. P-62 has an output capacity of 180,000 bopd and is located in the Roncador field. P-61 is located in the Papa-Terra field and will be interconnected to semisubmersible Tender Assisted Drilling (TAD) platform SS-88, which is already in Brazil.

These platforms will contribute to the 7.5% (+/- 1%) sustainable production growth in 2014, allowed for in the 2014-2018 Business and Management Plan.

Production abroad

In February, total oil and natural gas extraction abroad was 206,712 boed, up 2.5% on January’s output of 201,653 boed. Oil production stood at 115,279 bpd, up 2.5% on the January figure of 112,462 bpd.

This rise was due to the start-up of wells CA-6 and CH-5, in the US Gulf of Mexico’s Cascade and Chinook fields. The combined output of these wells rose from 15,900 bopd in January to 21,594 bopd in February (Petrobras’ share). The development of Cascade and Chinook fields is ongoing and the first FPSO deployed in the US Gulf of Mexico has an output capacity of 80,000 bpd.

Natural gas production abroad was 15.534 million m³/d, up 2.5% on January’s figure of 15.154 million m³/d, due to increased demand in Brazil for gas from Bolivia.

Including production abroad, Petrobras’ total oil and gas production in February was 2.534 million boed, up 0.9% on January’s figure of 2.512 million boed.

Total production reported to the ANP

The total output reported to the ANP was 8,562,438 m³ of oil and 2.133196 billion m³ of gas in February 2014. This output corresponds to the total output of the concessions where Petrobras is the operator. It does not include shale, NGL and third party output where Petrobras is not the operator.