Offshore staff
(South America) - Petrobras has won exploration rights for two offshore blocks in the Turkish sector of the Black Sea, jointly with Turkey's state-run TPAO.
The two companies will have equal stakes in the Kirklarelli and Sinop deepwater blocks with good geological prospects, according to Petrobras.
"The Turkish area of the Black Sea is still rather unexplored, representing high risk but also high premium potential," Petrobras says.
Petrobras said its rivals in the TPAO-organized licensing auction were Britain's BP, Exxon Mobil, and Total
Petrobras also reported that it started producing natural gas at its offshore, shallow water Peroa field in the Espirito Santo basin, and the first of three wells there will reach its project capacity of over 1 MMcm/d of gas next week.
The gas supply should later be doubled, possibly in the second half of this year, when the Cacimbas-Vitoria stretch of the Gasene pipeline becomes operative.
In a second phase of the project, Petrobras plans to produce up to 8 MMcm/d of natural gas starting from 2008.
In the second half of 2008, Petrobras also expects first large volumes of gas from the Santos basin, where Mexilhao and Merluza fields should pump 12 MMcm/d then.
By 2010, Santos gas output is expected to reach 30 MMcm/d.
02/23/06
