MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Offshore oil platform begins pre-salt operations

This platform has state-of-the-art technology to produce more with less environmental impact, Silveira said

Brazilian authorities announced Saturday that the Almirante Tamandaré (Búzios 7) offshore oil production platform, the largest in the country, began operating in the Búzios Field, in the Santos Basin, around 180 kilometers off Rio de Janeiro. The platform ship can process up to 225,000 barrels of oil and 12 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.

The unit will explore 15 wells, seven of which are oil producers, six water and gas injectors, one convertible (producer and injector), and one gas injector. All of them will be interconnected to the platform via a subsea infrastructure.

The Búzios field is considered one of the most promising points in the so-called Brazilian pre-salt, an area of oil reserves formed by a layer of sedimentary rocks and located in ultra-deep waters off the Brazilian coast, between 5,000 and 7,000 meters deep.

In a statement, Petrobras reaffirmed its expectation that the Búzios Field will soon become its largest production field and could exceed 1.5 million barrels of production per day. “The FPSO Almirante Tamandaré is part of the sixth production system at Búzios and will help the field reach production of 1 million barrels of oil per day, scheduled for the second half of 2025,” Petrobras President Magda Chambriard said.

The unit was chartered from SBM Offshore. As well as having a production capacity above the industry average - which is around 150,000 barrels of oil per day and compression of 10 million m3 of gas - Almirante Tamandaré has decarbonization technologies, which, according to Petrobras, contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. There are also technologies for using heat, which reduce the demand for additional energy for the unit.

Also in a statement, Minister of Mines and Energy Alexandre Silveira highlighted the importance of the unit for the expansion of national production. “The start-up of the FPSO Almirante Tamandaré is another important step towards strengthening energy production in Brazil. This platform has state-of-the-art technology to produce more with less environmental impact, using modern systems to reduce emissions and optimize energy use. This reinforces our commitment to developing the oil and gas sector on a sustainable basis,” he said.

The start of the operation on Saturday (15) coincided with the announcement that Petrobras had identified new oil reserves in a well (9-BUZ-99D-RJS ) in the western region of the Búzios Field, drilled to a depth of around 1,940 meters, from tests carried out at a depth of 5,600 meters.

The start of operations took place one day after the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) granted the remaining authorizations for the Búzios Shared Reservoir Consortium, made up of Petrobras (the operator with 88.9% control over the project), CNOOC (7.34%) and CNPC (3.67%) to put the unit into operation.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)