Shell Begins Production at Parque das Conchas

Shell has started production at its multi-field Parque das Conchas project 110 km off Brazil's southeast coast, where heavy oil resources lie beneath waters nearly two km deep in the Campos Basin. Parque das Conchas is a two-phase project with initial production drawn from Abalone, Ostra and Argonauta B-West. The first phase, now on-stream, involves nine producing wells and one gas injector well, which the second phase will focus on the Argonauta O-North field. Electric pumps of 1,500 horsepower drive the oil 1,800 m up to the surface for processing in a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), Espírito Santo, which is more than 330 m long. It can process 100 thousand barrels of oil and 50 million cu ft of natural gas per day and store nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil for shipment to shore by transport tankers.