Petrobras installs gas-lift manifold in 6,184 ft water depth

Petrobras installed a subsea gas-lift manifold to distribute gas in 6,184 ft water depth in the Roncador Field, Campos Basin. The gas-lift was designed to operate in 6,562 ft water depth. Some of the components are capable of operating in 8,202 ft. The gas-lift is 32.8 ft x 24.6 ft x 13.1 ft and weighs 191 tons with installation equipment. It was installed using steel cables and support vessels. It was designed to reduce costs by distributing gas, coming from the production unit, in a single gas-line to inject into six wells. The gas-lift allows gas-flow control from six wells. It has five valves that direct the pig to pass through any of the six wells. It contains gas-measuring equipment, three choke modules, a vertical connection system, and equipment to inject ethanol in the manifold and wet christmas trees. The gas-lift is scheduled to come onstream at the end of this year after connecting the wells to the manifold and after the manifold to the production unit is done, which will be theBrasil floating production, storage, and offloading vessel. Installation was carried out jointly by the Amethyst-1 (SS-47) semisubmersible and the anchor handling tug supply service vessel Asso 23. Salgueiro is responsible for sticking to the coordinates and azimuth of the installation.
Toisa Marine is responsible for support services for the ROV remotely operated vehicle and Normand Atlantic is responsible for maintaining direction of descent of the manifold and avoiding the rotation of the cables. The installation procedure was determined by the Petrobras E&P department, with support from Cenpes Petrobras Research Center and the company's engineering dept. The system models and hydro-dynamic analysis were sub-contracted to specialized companies in coordination with Cenpes.