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PetroRio paralyzes oil and natural gas production at Campo de Frade after verifying failures in the FPSO gas line

Written by Ruth Rodrigues
Published 16/08/2022 às 22:40
The verification of some failures in the gas line of PetroRio's FPSO platform in Campo de Frade led the company to announce the temporary stoppage of oil and natural gas production in the asset, one of its main assets in the domestic market.
Photo: PRIO

The verification of some failures in the gas line of PetroRio's FPSO platform in Campo de Frade led the company to announce the temporary stoppage of oil and natural gas production in the asset, one of its main assets in the domestic market.

During the night of last Monday, (15/08), the fuel exploration company PetroRio announced the stoppage of the production of oil and natural gas in the Campo de Frade region, located in the Campos Basin, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The reason for the stoppage is failures in the gas line of the FPSO platform that produces fuel on site and now needs to undergo maintenance.

Production of oil and natural gas at Campo de Frade is temporarily paralyzed by the company PetroRio after failures in the gas line of the FPSO platform 

The week did not start well for the oil and natural gas company PetroRio, which announced the stoppage of fuel production in one of its main assets in the national territory, Campo de Frade, a structure located in the Campos Basin.

The company disclosed that some faults in the gas line of the FPSO platform were responsible for the need for a temporary stoppage of production at the site. 

The oil and gas company also stated that the stoppage in production at Campo de Frade could take a projected time between five and seven days, negatively impacting the company's entire production chain in the national branch, since this is an essential asset for its operations.

Campo de Frade is responsible for most of PetroRio's production and, during the month of July alone, the company extracted 28,5 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the region, or the equivalent of 61% of its daily production.

For comparison purposes, the relevance of Campo de Frade in fuel production is so great that, in the first half of this year 2022, only production in the Polvo and Tubarão Martelo fields exceeded the daily production of Campo de Frade.

The company is currently putting into practice a plan to revitalize the field. One of the company's new wells in the region, named ODP4, produced 15 barrels of oil per day, boosting the company's total production by 45%.

The company may not produce 200 barrels of oil during the month of August with the stoppage of production at the Campo de Frade FPSO

Due to the strong relevance of FPSO production in Campo de Frade for the company PetroRio, the unexpected stoppage of exploration due to the problem in the gas line could bring a strong loss to the company.

In this way, the period that can take up to 7 days of stoppage in the FPSO can lead the company to stop producing from 142 thousand to 200 thousand barrels of oil in August.

In addition, the impact will also be felt in the company's administrative branch, since PetroRio's shares ended this Monday with a 2,1% drop, traded at R$ 25,33. The announcement of the stoppage of production due to failures in the gas line was the main driver of the fall in shares.

However, the reduction in the appreciation of shares was also impacted by the decline in the value of oil in the international market with the fear of a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Now, PetroRio is planning to maintain the gas line with a view to resuming production in Campo de Frade as quickly as possible, in order to minimize the impacts and losses on its exploration in the Campos Basin.

Ruth Rodrigues

Graduated in Biological Sciences from the State University of Rio Grande do Norte (UERN), she works as a writer and scientific disseminator.

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