MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras controls spill at offshore rig while transferring oil to ship

The spill apparently only involved 1.500 litres

Brazil’s government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras announced Monday it had controlled an oil leak at an offshore platform in the Campos Basin, 160 kilometers from Rio do Janeiro.

The P-47 platform leaked an estimated 1,500 liters of oil at Marlim field during preparations to transfer oil to a ship, Petrobras said in an e-mailed statement.

Petrobras said oil production wasn’t affected at the platform used for storage and processing. A helicopter and four boats assisted with clean up efforts, the company said.

“The spill was immediately controlled” underlined Petrobras in the statement.

The Brazilian company also announced that it drilled an exploratory well through salt in Marlim field in the Campos basin and found carbonate reservoirs from which preliminary estimates indicate it could recover 380 million boe.

The Brava (6-MRL-199D-RJS) well was drilled in 648 m of water 170 km off Macae, through 1,000 m of salt to a total depth of 5,000 m and found 29° gravity oil in pre-salt carbonate reservoirs at 4,460 m. Regular pay in Marlim field, discovered in 1985, is at about 3,380 m.

The company plans to conduct tests of the well, which is near the installed infrastructure in Marlim and Voador fields. The discovery well is 4½ km from the P-27 platform.

This accumulation will be the object of an assessment plan to be submitted to the National Petroleum Agency soon, Petrobras said.