Offshore staff
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Petrobras has contracted ten new FPSO platforms for the Santos basin pre-salt areas.
The first two FPSO platforms will be chartered by Petrobras from third parties. The platforms will be used in pilot development projects, the company says. Each unit's daily production capacity will be 100,000 bbl of oil and 5 MMcm of natural gas. The units will be installed between 2013 and 2014 in areas that are yet to be defined in the pre-salt area.
The eight other production units will belong to Petrobras, and will have daily production capacities of 120,000 bbl of oil and 5 MMcm of natural gas, and will be installed during 2015 and 2016. They will be manufactured in series, beginning with the construction of the hulls at the dry dock of the Rio Grande Shipyard, in Rio Grande do Sul, which has already been leased by Petrobras for a term of 10 years. The production modules to be installed on the hulls will be defined in the future, after the pilot projects and the long duration tests are deployed, the company says.
The 10 FPSOs will operate in ultra deep waters, ranging from 2,400 to 3,000 m (7,874 to 9,843 ft), and will be used to kick-off the definitive production system in the pre-salt area of the Santos basin.
09/16/2008
