Chevron’s Brazilian subsidiary, Chevron Brasil Upstream Frade Ltda announced last night it has been ordered by Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) to shut in one of its 11 production wells and four produced water injection wells at its off-shore Frade joint-venture Floating Production-Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility.
The move by the ANP follows the agency’s Nov. 23 to 25 safety audit of the Frade FPSO, the company said. The production well cited by the ANP accounts for less than 10 percent of Frade’s total production of about 79,000 barrels per day (approximately 36,000 barrels net).
“Chevron respects the decisions of the ANP and will respond appropriately to the agency’s requests for clarification. All Frade production and injection wells are safe and secure. Chevron continues to fully inform and work with Brazilian government agencies to address their specific issues on our activities in Brazil.” said the company on its website.
With regard to the reported existence of hydrogen sulfide gas as the basis for requesting the well be shut in, Chevron said it “clarifies that it conducts regular monitoring of the substance, a natural byproduct of the oil and gas production process, and the company has safety systems and processes in place to ensure the safety of employees, contractors and the operations at all times.”
Chevron said it was confident it would successfully respond to the ANP’s concerns and be able to resume operation of its production and injection wells in due time.
[mappress] Offshore Energy Today Staff, December 2, 2011