Platform P-53 starts producing in the Campos Basin

Platform P-53, the first production unit installed in the Marlim Leste field, in the Campos Basin, kicked-off its operations yesterday (11/30). More than just a new oil and gas production unit, this platform represents a major victory for the Brazilian naval industry: 75% of its content were goods and services supplied by the national industry. Included in the Federal Government’s Growth Acceleration Plan (PAC), the construction of the P-53 generated some 4,500 direct and 15,000 indirect jobs in Brazil.

Strategic to ensure the maintenance of the Brazilian oil self-sufficiency, the P-53 is capable of producing up to 180,000 barrels of heavy oil, 20 degrees API, and of compressing up to 6 million cubic meters of gas per day. The platform’s oil production will be offloaded to shore by shuttle tankers with the assistance of Autonomous Repumping Platform PRA-1 and of FSO Cidade de Macaé. The platform will reach peak production in the first half of 2010. Part of the gas that is produced will be consumed by the platform itself as fuel to generate electricity, and the rest will be exported to shore via the Campos Basin’s gas network.

The P-53 is anchored at a site where water depth is 1,080 meters, 120 km off the coast. Built from the conversion of the Setebello oil tanker, it will be interconnected to 21 wells, 13 of which oil and gas producers and eight water injectors. The platform is equipped with a turret system (a tower that receives the flexible production and injection lines, the oil and gas pipelines, and the mooring lines) which is 26 meters in diameter and is capable of receiving up to 75 flexible lines.

Segmented in modules, platform construction was contracted from Keppel Shipyard, in charge of converting the hull and of assembling the “turret”; SBM, responsible for designing and supplying the “turret;” Rolls-Royce, in charge of the power generation module; DRVA, a consortium of Dresser Rand and Vetco Aibel, which built the compression module; and QUIP S.A., a consortium formed by Queiroz Galvão, Ultratec, and IESA which was in charge of the oil separation, gas treatment, and utility modules, as well as of integrating all of the modules to the vessel.

The P-53 integration work was carried out, for the first time, in the Rio Grande shipyard, in Rio Grande do Sul, and contributed to reactivate industrial activities in an area that had long been idle.

Four more Petrobras production units are slated to go online in the next six months. They will be installed in the Campos, Espírito Santo, and Santos basins and will also contribute to grow Petrobras and Brazil’s oil and gas production. They are:

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Platform P-51, in the Marlim Sul Field, in the Campos Basin;
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FPSO Cidade de Niterói, in the Marlim Leste field, in the Campos Basin;
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FPSO Cidade de São Mateus, in the Camarupim Field, in the Espírito Santo Basin;
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FPSO BW Peace, Pilot Project in the Tupi Field, in the Pre-Salt layer in the Santos Basin.

P-53 data

Location: Marlim Leste field, 120 Km off the coast
Production capacity: 180,000 barrels of oil per day
Gas compression capacity: 6 million m³ per day
Water injection capacity: 245,000 barrels of water per day
Power generation: 92 MW
Length: 346 m
Living quarters: 160 people
Production wells: 13
Injection wells: 8