Keppel/Technip Consortium to Deliver P-51 to Petrobras

The consortium of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd  and Technip Engenharia S/A is on track to deliver the P-51 floating production unit (FPU) to Petrobras Netherlands BV (PNBV) by November 2008.
This 48,000 tonne FPU is the second such rig that the consortium partners have completed. The first rig, the P-52 FPU, is currently producing in the Roncador field.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of and First Lady Marisa Letícia Lula da Silva who was the Lady Sponsor, were at Keppel FELS Brasil’s BrasFELS shipyard yesterday to witness the christening. They were joined by some 5,000 Brazilian workers who also celebrated the achievement of the national project.
The P-51 will support Petrobras' offshore oil exploration and production activities, contributing significantly towards ’s self-sufficiency in oil production. The making of the two rigs has also enabled significant technological and knowledge transfer to .
With the P-51, Keppel’s projects for Petrobras will contribute at production capacity more than 1 million barrels of oil per day (bopd). This represents over 50% of ’s present production rate of 1.8 million bopd. In 2010, when it reaches its top operating capacity, the P-51 will account for 8 percent of ’s domestic oil production.
The project also won accolades from Petrobras for excellence in project management and execution through the PRODEP award for two consecutive years in 2006 and 2007.
The P-51 is a FPU that stands 34 stories high and 10 Olympic swimming pools wide. The platform will be anchored in a water depth of 1,255 metres in the Marlim Sul field, in the in , and will have the capacity to produce 180,000 bopd with medium API gravity of 28 and 6 million m3/day of gas.

In Brazil’s bid to become a net exporter of energy, its national oil company, Petrobras, has a planned investment of more than $112b for 2008-2012 and about 60 percent of the budget has been allocated for exploration and production. It has also announced plans to build and convert more floating production units such as semisubmersibles and floating production storage and offloading facilities (FPSOs).