The conveyor belt of major projects for Petrobras continues to churn out new production for the state-owned operator, with the P-58 FPSO now flowing on the Parque das Baleias field complex offshore Brazil.

The platform started producing on 17 March in the Espírito Santo sector of the Campos Basin via pre-salt well 7-BFR-7-ESS, with the operator saying the well “presented excellent productivity, as expected”. P-58 is an integral part of the Northern Parque das Baleias project, which involves production from the Baleia Franca, Cachalote, Jubarte, Baleia Azul and Baleia Anã fields.

The FPSO is located about 85 km off the coast of Espírito Santo in a water depth of 1,400 m (4,593 ft). In the coming months, 15 producing wells are expected to be connected to the floater (eight producing from the pre-salt, seven from the post-salt, and nine injection wells), through 250 km of flexible pipes and two subsea manifolds.

The FPSO has the capacity to process up to 180,000 b/d of oil and 6 MMcm/d of gas.

Three other new platforms are scheduled to come into operation in the second quarter of this year. On the Roncador field in the Campos Basin the P-62 is due to start flowing oil, alongside existing Roncador platforms P-52, P-54 and P-55. The latter came onstream only in December 2013.

On the Papa-Terra field, the P-61 and the SS-88 TAD (Tender Assisted Drilling) well-drilling support semisubmersible platform will also enter service. These will develop production at Papa-Terra along with the P-63, which began flowing in November last year.