Petrobras Starts Production at P-75 Platform

The P-75 floating production, storage, and offloading unit (FPSO) has begun producing oil and natural gas in the Búzios 2 area of the pre-salt Santos Basin, Brazil's state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) said.

With a daily capacity to process up to 150,000 barrels of oil and compress up to 6 million cubic meters of natural gas, P-75 will produce through 10 producing wells, also using seven injection wells, Petrobras said. Relief vessels will be used to offload the oil production, while gas will be drained by pre-salt pipeline routes.

The FPSO is located approximately 210 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, at 2,000 meters water depth. It is the second of four units to be installed in the Búzios field.

Búzios, discovered in 2010, is the main field under a Transfer of Rights Agreement that gives Petrobras the exclusive right to explore and produce up to five billion barrels of oil equivalent in the Santos Basin.

P-75 is the fourth of six platforms scheduled to to start production in Brazil in 2018. After the P-74, which kicked off production in the Búzios field in April, the FPSO Cidade Campos dos Goytacazes achieved the first oil production in the Tartaruga Verde field in June, and P-69 began production in October as the eighth unit installed in the Lula field.

Also planned to come online this year are platforms P-67, which is already located in the Lula field, and P-76, which is scheduled to go to the Búzios field in December.