Offshore staff
(Brazil)- Spain's Repsol YPF and Brazil's state oil company Petrobras have started production at the country's largest offshore floating platform, thus making the Spanish company the third largest oil producer in Brazil.
The P-50 Albacora-Leste platform, in which Repsol YPF holds a 10% stake, is in the Campos Basin, 120 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, and anchored to the seabed at a depth of 1,240 m.
Total certified reserves at the Albacora-Leste field are 534 MMbbl of oil and 183 bcf (32.6 MMboe) of gas, of which 409 MMboe are proven. Net reserves for Repsol YPF in this project amount to 40.9 MMboe. The field has an expected production capacity of 180,000 b/d.
This project, encompassing 16 producing wells and 14 horizontal injection wells, has a compression capacity for 6 MMcm/d of gas, which Repsol says allows Brazil to be self-sufficient in oil.
The development of the Albacora-Leste field required an investment of nearly $2 billion.
Repsol says that P-50 Albacora-Leste is one of the most modern and complex production units in the world, and uses cutting edge technology which has simplified the project, improved efficiency and considerably reduced costs.
Antonio Brufau, chairman and CEO of Repsol YPF, stated that the start-up of this floating platform, the largest in Brazil and among the largest in the world, "is fruit of the extraordinary understanding with the Brazilian authorities and Petrobras, and forms part of Repsol YPF's strategy to associate with the state companies owning the reserves in the countries where we operate."
Brufau added: "Repsol YPF is one of the companies leading the way in the process of opening up the oil sector in Brazil. Our participation in this great project responds to the company's policy of geographical diversification in the exploration and production of hydrocarbons in its upstream activities."
Repsol YPF conducts E&P activities in Brazil at 25 blocks in the offshore Santos, Campos and Espírito Santo basins. Repsol YPF has been operating in Brazil since 1997, and is currently that country's third largest oil producer.
6/7/2006
