MODEC’s FPSO Guanabara MV31 for Brazilian presalt achieves first oil

May 6, 2022
The FPSO Guanabara MV31 deployed for operations at the Mero Field offshore Brazil achieved first oil production and started charter services.

Offshore staff

TOKYO, Japan — MODEC Inc.'s FPSO Guanabara MV31 deployed for operations at the Mero Field in the giant presalt region of the Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil, achieved first oil production and started charter services on May 1. It is the largest FPSO built by the company to date.

Moored some 180 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro at a water depth of approximately 2,100 m, the FPSO is capable of processing 180,000 bbl of crude oil, 424 MMscf of gas and 225,000 bbl of water injection per day, and it has storage capacity of 1.4 MMbbl of crude oil.

The FPSO is leased on a 22-year time charter contract to Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras), the Brazilian state oil company.

MODEC was responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction and mobilization of the FPSO, including topsides processing equipment as well as hull and marine systems.

SOFEC Inc., a MODEC group company, designed and provided the spread mooring system of the FPSO.

This is the 14th FPSO/FSO vessel that MODEC has delivered to the Brazilian oil and gas sector as well as MODEC’s seventh FPSO in the presalt region. The FPSO Guanabara MV31 is designed to reinject 100% of the processed gas back into the oil well.

MODEC operates 11 units in Brazil and has three others under construction for the country: FPSO Almirante Barroso MV32, FPSO Anita Garibaldi MV33 and an FPSO for Equinor’s Bacalhau project.

The vessel is the third one operated by MODEC to start production in recent months. In August 2021, the company started operating the FPSO Carioca MV30 in the Sépia Field, also in the presalt region of the Santos Basin. In February 2022, it started production on the FPSO MIAMTE MV34 in the Gulf of Mexico.

05.06.2022