Offshore staff

READING, UK – BG Group (BRGYY.PK:OCQX) says the first permanent FPSO on the Lula field in the Santos basin off Brazil has to date produced 15 MMboe in total from three wells, with a fourth due to be added in 2012.

From this location alone, BG Group expects 1 Bboe to be produced through the life of the Lula field.

Drilling performance has consistently improved, the company adds, with time to total depth down from the 141 days on the Lula discovery well to a current average of 66 days.

BG adds that work on FPSO 2 is progressing at the BrasFELS shipyard, with the vessel around 80% complete. It will have production capacity of 150 000 boe/d when its starts work on the Sapinhoá (ex-Guara) field from 2013.

Work on FPSO 3, due to start operating on Lula in 2013, is more than 70% complete and the vessel is about to leave Singapore for Brazil.

Contracts have also been awarded for FPSOs 4 and 5, with a further eight FPSO hulls under construction at the Rio Grande do Sul yard, and welding under way on the hull for FPSO 6.

BG has begun independent oil sales operations from the Lula FPSO have begun. The company lifted two cargoes last year aboard the 1 MMbbl-capacity Windsor Knutsen shuttle tanker, and a further seven cargoes are planned for 2012.

Commercial gas sales have started via the offshore Lula-Mexilhao pipeline, which has sufficient capacity to serve three FPSOs. The Cabiunas gas pipeline should be sanctioned this year and will have gas export capacity for a further three to four FPSOs.

2/9/2012