Bonds Break and Petrobras Halts Production of P50 in Campos Basin

Information Initially Disclosed by Sindipetro NF Was Confirmed by Petrobras, Which Preventively Halted Production on the Platform

Sindipetro-NF announced last night (09/23) that Petrobras’ P50 Platform had three of the five moorings anchoring the ship at the bow to port side broken.
Production on the FPSO was immediately halted by Petrobras, with a state of alert issued; the unit operates in the Campos Basin, in the Albacora Leste field.

Petrobras also issued an official note at 10:23 PM (yesterday), stating that “Anchored by another 15 moorings, the platform is stable and secure, posing no risk to people or the environment. Currently, 178 people are working onboard the unit. Petrobras is taking all necessary measures to repair the system and resume production as quickly as possible.”

Workers reported to Sindipetro-NF that the P50 had been experiencing mooring system problems for a few days, with two moorings broken and shortly thereafter a third mooring broke.
The vessel has five bow port moorings, five bow starboard moorings (in the front right), five stern port moorings (behind to the left), and five stern starboard moorings (behind to the right).

“As we were already experiencing deficiencies in the mooring, at the time of the third mooring breaking, we were towing the bow of the platform with a boat applying 15 tons of tension; now this same boat is applying 100 tons of tension, which has kept our offset at 40 meters. A second boat has already been called in for additional towing strength. We are in the process of halting production, taking care not to damage the wells,” the workers reported to the union.

According to Sindipetro-NF, there was a possibility of evacuating the vessel if the offset exceeded 50 meters, but it is also considered to wait for the limit of 70 meters.
Evacuation, according to Petrobras’ note, will not be necessary since the vessel “is stable and secure.”

The Union is monitoring the situation on the platform and is demanding updates from Petrobras regarding the status of the workers onboard.
The FPSO produces an average of 20,000 barrels of oil per day and about 500,000 cubic meters of natural gas daily (512 Mm³/day).

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