A new, deep-water oil and gas production is underway at the Lula Extreme South in the Brazilian Santos Basin, Royal Dutch Shell Plc. announced Wednesday.
'Operated by Petrobras, P-69 is a standardized vessel that can process up to 150,000 barrels of oil and 6 million cubic meters of natural gas daily. It will ramp up production through eight producing and seven injection wells,' a statement read.
Subsidiary Shell Brasil Petroleo Ltda. has a 25 percent stake in the Lula consortium, operated by Petrobras with a 65 percent interest. Portuguese Galp, through its subsidiary Petrogal Brasil, holds the remaining 10 percent interest.
According to the statement, P-69 is Shell's 14th deep water FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) vessel in Brazil, which includes a fleet of FPSOs in the pre-Salt Campos and Santos Basin. Shell operates the BC-10 and Bijupira and Salema FPSOs.
Upstream Director for Shell Andy Brown said the Brazilian pre-salt fields were some of the best deep-water provinces in the world.
'With significant flow rates, deep-water Brazil projects are breaking even under $40 per barrel. We commend Petrobras on this production milestone, and we look forward to progressing additional development plans with our consortium partners as well as for our recently-acquired, deep-water Brazil blocks,' he added.
According to the statement, following Lula Extreme South, the next FPSO is the P-67 for Lula North.
'The Libra product sharing agreement continues to progress with an extended well test as well as the Mero 1 FPSO, and additional FPSOs are planned. Shell also has development drilling planned for its operated, Gato do Mato South field in 2019,' it said.
Shell's deep-water business produces approximately 740 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and is expected to reach approximately 900 thousand boe/d by 2020 from already discovered, established areas, according to the press release.
'Recent bid rounds offer Shell significant potential for additional deep-water discoveries, bringing the company's total operated presence offshore Brazil to 27 concessions and approximately 2.7 million acres,' it said.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr