Petrobras, alongside partners Shell and Galp, has launched production from the seventh Lula field floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel, bringing the consortium a step closer to reaching 1 million B/D of oil from the prolific Lula hub offshore Brazil.
Hydrocarbons are flowing to the P-67 FPSO as part of the Lula North deepwater project in the pre-salt Santos Basin. The vessel, which has a capacity of 150,000 B/D of oil and 6 million cu m/day of natural gas, sits in 2130 m of water on the BM-S-11 concession 260 km off Rio de Janeiro state.
P-67 will be connected to nine production wells and multiple injection wells. Oil will be offloaded to lifting vessels and gas will be sent through pre-salt gas pipelines.
Comprising the Lula and Cernambi reservoirs, Lula is Brazil’s largest producing field, accounting for 30% of the country’s oil and gas production.
The previous Lula FPSO to start up, P-69, came in the Lula Extreme South area in October 2018. Including the two FPSOs at the Iracema field, a total of nine FPSOs are operating on BM-S-11.
The other vessels operating on the block are:
- Cidade de Angra dos Reis FPSO in the Lula Pilot
- Cidade de Paraty FPSO in the Lula Nordeste Pilot
- Cidade de Mangaratiba FPSO at Iracema Sul
- FPSO Cidade de Itaguai at Iracema Norte
- FPSO Cidade de Marica at Lula Alto
- FPSO Cidade de Saquarema at Lula Central
- P-66 at Lula Sul
Lula field was discovered in 2006, and commercial production began there in 2010.
Petrobras is operator of the BM-S-11 consortium with a 65% stake. Shell and Galp hold 25% and 10%, respectively.
The state-run firm reported operated pre-salt oil and gas production of 1.75 million BOE/D in 2018 and a monthly record of 1.85 million BOE/D in December. Its total 2018 output, including natural gas liquids, was 2.63 million BOE/D, of which 2.53 million BOE/D was in Brazil. Petrobras’ Brazilian oil output was 2.03 million B/D.