Petrobras has brought the fifth of 11 planned FPSOs online in its massive pre-salt Búzios Field offshore Brazil.

Petrobras and field partner CNOOC announced on May 31 that the development in the Santos Basin in waters of 1,900 m to 2,200 m had begun production to the FPSO Almirante Barroso, chartered from MODEC. The FPSO has storage capacity for 1.4 MMbbl of oil. It was converted in China and arrived at the oilfield in February.

The P-74, P-75, P-76 and P-77 FPSOs in the Búzios, the world’s largest deepwater field, are jointly producing 600,000 bbl/d. Búzios 5 has five production and five injector wells, which will produce up to 150,000 bbl/d of crude, 6 MMcm/d of natural gas and inject 220,000 bbl/d of water, according to CNOOC.

The Almirante Tamandare is expected to begin production in 2024, the P-78 and P-79 in 2025, the P-80 and P-82 in 2026 and P-83 in 2027.

“By 2025, when the Almirante Barroso FPSO will be close to its maximum capacity and we will have the entry of other units, the field's production should reach close to the 700,000 barrels per day mark,” Petrobras CEO Jean Paul Prates said in a press release.

In 2022, Petrobras signed contracts with Keppel Shipyard Ltd. for construction of the P-80 for Búzios 9, with Sembcorp Marine Rigs & Floaters for the P-82 for Búzios 10 and with Keppel Shipyard for the P-83 for Búzios 11.

Petrobras expects Búzios Field production to exceed 2 MMbbl/d once all the planned units are online.

CNOOC President Xia Qinglong said Búzios 5 was the first project to begin production after CNOOC had joined the project and that it would “inject new momentum into our overseas production growth. "

Petrobras operates the field with 88.9% interest on behalf of partners CNOOC with 7.3% and CNODC 3.7%.

Offshore