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Maximum capacity at the Santos Basin pre-salt station. That was Petrobras' announcement last Friday (13). The Brazilian state oil and gas giant presented the production numbers of the Floating Production, Storage and Transfer Unit (FPSO) Guanabara, which is installed in the Mero field, Santos Basin.
With just eight months of operation, the 180 barrels of oil (bpd) being produced at the unit indicate consistency in production. In addition to high productivity, it reflects that development strategies have been rigidly applied, making operational safety possible.
The Mero field, located in Santos Basin, is the third largest oil field in Brazil, second only to the Tupi and Búzios fields, also installed in the Santos Basin pre-salt. The FPSO Guanabara has four producing wells and three gas injectors, and is the first in a series of four definitive platforms, all with equal installed production capacity, 180 bpd each. For the Director of Exploration and Production at Petrobrás, Fernando Borges, all this result denotes a scenario of evolution of the platform.
In the Mero field, unitized operations are connected through a partnership developed between Shell Brazil Oil, participation of 19,3%; TotalEnergies EP Brasil, equal percentage share; CNOOC Brasil Oil and Gas, 9,65%; Pre-Salt Petroleum (PPSA), 3,5%; and Petrobras, 38,6%.
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The performance achieved, in addition to the result of high productivity per well, also results from the acceleration of the learning curve and the use of state-of-the-art technologies, for example, the loop configuration for the gas and water injection wells, promoting that the CO2 (carbon dioxide) is separated by membranes.
Reduction of emissions
FPSO Guanabara has one of the most robust carbon acquisition, utilization, and geological containment programs seen today. The program called CCUS operates with 45% gas, and therefore emits much less CO2 than other units.
But the ambitions of the pre-salt are even larger, which is why the consortium has been working on an unprecedented submarine separation technology, HISEP, to be used in the field. The objective is that the gas rich in CO2 be separated and reinjected into the reservoir also in the depths of the sea.
Another measure that also guarantees the reduction of emissions is the use of FPSO Pioneiro de Libra. It is he who operates the production system called SPA2. This system is responsible for increasing production by around 27,78% of bpd (50). As a result, the Mero field actually has an installed production capacity of 230 bpd.
The consortium has announced plans to install a second platform in the Mero field in the second half of this year. Named Sepetiba, the new platform provides for the same installed production capacity. By 2025, the expectation is to put two more operating units into operation in Mero. With five units, this field alone will have an installed capacity in Brazil of 770 bpd.
