Lula Field News

Brazil's state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro said on Tuesday a fire at a platform in the Santos Basin was contained and did not cause injuries or environmental damage.   Production there remains halted until safety tests can be completed, the company said. The fire was discovered early on Tuesday on a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit in the Lula Field. The unit is operated by Petrobras in consortium with Royal Dutch Shell and Petrogal .   Reporting by Marta Nogueira

On Saturday (February 4), the floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) P-66 left the Brasfels shipyard in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro. It is now heading to the Lula Sul module in the Lula field, Santos Basin pre-salt, where it is expected to arrive in the next few days. The production system will come online after the vessel has been moored and the first production well has been connected. P-66 is the Lula Consortium’s first FPSO to be deployed in the Santos Basin pre-salt. It was assembled at the Brasfels shipyard in Angra dos Reis, where the equipment and systems were also tested. The FPSO will separate the oil from the gas and water during the production process, storing it in tanks, and finally transferring it into oil tankers, which will then transport it.

Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, through subsidiary Keppel FELS Brasil SA's BrasFELS shipyard, has been awarded a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) module fabrication and integration project by its repeat customer MODEC Offshore Production Systems (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., a MODEC, Inc. group company, for a contract value of over BRL 500 million (SGD190 million). BrasFELS' work scope for this project comprises the fabrication and integration of nine topside production modules for the FPSO Cidade de Campos dos Goytacazes MV29. The vessel is expected to arrive at the shipyard by the first quarter of 2017 for the integration phase.

Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), through its subsidiary, Keppel FELS Brasil SA's BrasFELS shipyard has been awarded a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) module fabrication and integration project by its repeat customer MODEC Offshore Production Systems (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., a MODEC, Inc. group (MODEC) company, for a contract value of over BRL 500 million (SGD190 million). BrasFELS' work scope for this project comprises the fabrication and integration of nine topside production modules for the FPSO Cidade de Campos dos Goytacazes MV29. The vessel is expected to arrive at the shipyard by the first quarter of 2017 for the integration phase.

Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Friday it plans to sell its rights to 104 onshore oil and gas concessions, part of efforts to raise cash and focus increasingly scarce capital on more profitable offshore assets. The company, known as Petrobras, said in a securities filing that 98 of the areas are producing fields. Oil output from those areas is about 35,000 barrels a day, or less than 2 percent of the company's petroleum output and less than some single wells in Petrobras' giant offshore Lula field. The Petrobras statement did not say how much natural gas the areas produce. Six of the areas are still in the exploratory phase. Small Brazilian and international oil companies have long called on the company to sell the bulk of its onshore oil and gas portfolio.

In February, a second floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO)* unit deployed by NYK for the BM-S-11 consortium through a joint venture company started oil production in a pre-salt area off Brazil. This FPSO unit, FPSO Cidade de Marica, is owned by a shareholder consortium comprising SBM Offshore N.V. (Netherlands), Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás S.A. (Brazil), and a joint venture company between NYK (48.72 percent; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; president: Tadaaki Naito) and the Mitsubishi Corporation (51.28 percent; head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; president & CEO: Ken Kobayashi). The joint venture has a 20-year time charter contract with Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) to operate the FSPO.

MODEC, Inc. announced today that its FPSO Cidade de Itaguai MV26, operating in the Iracema Norte area of Lula field, in the Pre-Salt layer of Santos Basin offshore Brazil, has achieved First Oil production on July 31, 2015, five months ahead of the schedule anticipated under the contract. The FPSO is chartered by Tupi B.V., a subsidiary of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras), under a 20-year lease and operation contract. Moored 240 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Jeneiro at a water depth of around 2…

BG Group announced first oil from the Cidade de Itaguaí floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, the sixth unit to start production across the group's discoveries in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil. The FPSO will produce from the Iracema North area of the Lula field in the Petrobras-operated BM-S-11 block. Anchored 240 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, the Cidade de Itaguaí is approximately 2,220 meters above the ocean floor. This is the second leased…

SBM Offshore announced it has today completed the project financing of FPSO Cidade de Saquarema for a total of $1.55 billion, marking the largest project financing in the company's history. Project financing was secured by a consortium of 16 international banks with insurance cover from four Export Credit Agencies (ECA): Atradius Dutch State Business N.V. (Atradius), Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero S.p.A. (SACE) and UK Export Finance (UKEF). The facility is composed of three separate tranches totaling $1.55 billion with a 5.1 percent weighted average cost of debt and fourteen year post-completion maturity: Atradius covered tranche of $800 million including SACE $167 million and UKEF $53 million…

On Monday, December 8, Petrobras began transporting the hull of P-66, the first platform in a series of eight “replicant” FPSOs (floating production, storage and offloading units) being constructed to meet oil production demands in Brazil. This is the first FPSO hull completely built in the country. Having left the Rio Grande 1 shipyard, located in the city of Rio Grande, state of Rio Grande do Sul, the first replicant hull is now on its way to the Brasfels shipyard, in Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, where it is expected to arrive on December 18. At Brasfels, the modules will be installed on the hull, and equipment and systems will be integrated, interconnected and tested.

As some pre-salt plays begin production, a wide range of subsea infrastructure is being built, with O&G transportation pipeline grids being one of the vital downstream systems. Saipem has been recipient of the first major contracts to install deepwater pre-salt pipelines by national operator Petrobras. Claudio Paschoa, Maritime Reporter’s correspondent in Brazil brings us an in-depth look at Saipem’s vessels and projects in Brazil. Saipem’s pipelaying segment is part of a unified Business Unit Engineering & Construction, an entity with more than 30,000 employees from more than 100 nationalities, with more than 60 permanent establishments and numerous project execution centers worldwide, which has maintained yearly revenues exceeding $13 billion.

In June 2013, Petrobras’ total output (oil and natural gas) in Brazil averaged 2,378 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), 4.8% higher than May. Including the share operated by Petrobras for partner companies, total production in June was 2,489 thousand boed, 5.5% higher than the previous month. The increase in production was due to the startup of new wells connected to platforms FPSO Cidade de Itajaí, in Baúna field, Santos Basin, and FPSO Brasil, in Roncador field…

FPSO 'Cidade de Paraty' went onstream to begin commercial production in the Santos Basin Lula Nordeste pre-salt. Cidade de Paraty is a FPSO platform (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel anchored at a water depth of 2,120 meters, some 300 km off the coast and has the capacity to process up to 120,000 barrels of oil and 5 million cubic meters of gas per day. The 7-LL-11-RJS, the first well to be connected to the platform, has the potential to produce 25,000 barrels per day. However, output in the first month of operation will be restricted to 13,000 barrels of oil per day, and ramped up as natural gas processing and reinjection systems are commissioned. The Lula Nordeste field produces high quality, medium density (29º API) crude which will be taken off by tankers.

SBM Offshore has received a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the 20-year charter & operation of two FPSOs from BM-S-11 subsidiary Tupi BV. The FPSOs will be deployed at the Lula field in the pre-salt province offshore Brazil. BM-S-11 block is under concession to a consortium comprised of PETROBRAS (65%), BG E&P Brasil Ltda. (25%), and Petrogal Brasil S.A.(10%). The FPSOs will be owned and operated by a Joint Venture company owned by SBM Offshore with other partners including Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás S.A.(QGOG). SBM Offshore will be in charge of the construction of the two FPSOs with planned delivery expected respectively by end 2015 and early 2016.

Petrobras announce negotiations are under way to contract 2 Floating Production & Storage Units (FPSO's) for connection to wells in the Santos Basin. Petrobras and its partners in Block BM-S-11, BG E&P Brasil and Petrogal Brasil, announce negotiations are under way for the contracting with consortium QGOG/SBM (Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás S.A./ SBM Offshore) of two FPSOs for production development at Lula Alto and Lula Central, in Lula Field, in the pre-salt cluster of Santos Basin. Each FPSO will be connected to 18 wells, 10 of which are production wells and 8 injectors. Production is expected to begin in January 2016 at Lula Alto and in March 2016 at Lula Central. Each FPSO will have a processing capacity of 150,000 bpd of oil and 6,000,000 m3/day of natural gas.

San Donato Milanese (Milan), 3 May 2011 – Saipem has been awarded new E&C Offshore contracts worth in excess of $1 billion in China and Brazil. The offshore activities for both the contracts will be performed mainly by the newly-built and highly-specialized Saipem FDS 2 vessel, in different periods between 2012 and 2013. In China, Husky Oil China Ltd awarded Saipem the contract for the Liwan 3-1 Field – Deepwater EPCI. The scope of work includes the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of two 22 inch diameter 79-kilometres-long pipelines…

According to a report from the Houston Chronicla, Brazil's quest to remake itself into a global oil superpower is gaining momentum on a giant ship anchored about 200 miles south of Rio de Janeiro in the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Crews on a tanker-like vessel recently began extracting the first barrels of oil from a giant field known as Lula, more than three miles below. A vast network of nearby "pre-salt" reservoirs are estimated to hold 50 billion to 100 billion barrels of oil — enough to turn Brazil into one of the world's top five producers of crude.     (Source: The Houston Chronicle)