MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Floating storage vessel helps Petrobras increase oil production

The FPSO P-54

Brazil's government controlled oil corporation Petrobras took a major step this week to increase production from the Roncador field in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.

The FPSO P-54 floating production, storage and offloading vessel, designed to produce 180.000 bpd of oil at peak production was put online. The FPSO will help increase the field's installed capacity to 460,000 b/d. Built from the conversion of tanker Barão de Mauá, which belonged to Petrobras' fleet, P-54 is capable of compressing 211.9 MMcf/d of natural gas and storing up to 2 million barrels of oil. The new platform is an addition in the Roncador field to the P-52, which kicked off production in November and is also capable of lifting 180,000 b/d, as well as FPSO Brasil, which lifts 100,000 b/d. P-54 is anchored in 1,400 meters of water, and will be connected to 17 wells, 11 of which oil and gas producers, while the other six are water injectors. The new platform is expected to reach peak production in the second half of 2008. Until then, the unit will also reach its expected peak gas outflow level of 63.57 MMcf/d. Oil production outflow will be performed by relief vessels, while the gas will be transported via sub-sea pipelines to the mainland. As was the case with P-52, Petrobras built the new platform in compliance with the new nationalization parameters. Totaling 63% national content, P-54 construction work generated 2,600 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs. The FPSO was built in a modular fashion over 41 months after three agreements were signed in June 2004. The Dresser Rand/Mauá Jurong consortium built the gas compression modules, while Nuovo Pignone made the power generation ones. Jurong Shipyard was in charge of converting the hull, manufacturing the remaining process and utility modules, and unit integration. The process, utility and compression modules were built at the Mauá-Jurong construction site in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, while the power generation at Nuovo Pignone's Porto Novo Rio construction site in Caju, Rio de Janeiro. With P-54 going into operation, Petrobras concludes the inauguration cycle of three new production units in southeastern Brazil in the last quarter of the year. In addition to the P-54 and the P-52, in November the company put FPSO Cidade de Vitória into operation, a unit that is capable of producing 100,000 b/d from the Golfinho field in the Espírito Santo Basin.