First oil production from the giant Libra oil field offshore Brazil is expected to be achieved on November 15, 2017.
According to Brazil’s O’Globo news paper, the new date has been shared by the Petrobras Libra Project Manager, Orlando Ribeiro.
O’Globo reports that the new date marks a four month delay compared to the last schedule , and a year delay compared to the original plan for the first Libra extended well test.
First oil will flow into the Pioneiro de Libra FPSO, chartered by Petrobras from Teekay and Odeberecht consortium. The vessel, built in Singapore, arrived in Brazil in May this year.
According to O’Globo delays with the FPSO construction in Singapore, along with “several equipment problems” found after arrival in Brazil, have delayed the startup.
The Pioneiro de Libra will be the first to produce oil in the giant Libra Block which covers more than 1,500 square kilometers in the Santos Basin and has estimated reserves of 8-12 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
The FPSO can operate at water depths of up to 2,400 meters, with a production capacity of 50,000 barrels of oil per day and daily compression capacity of four million cubic meters of gas.
The extended well test to be carried out by Pioneiro de Libra FPSO will evaluate the performance of production and the reservoir behavior in order to better determine the specifications of the definitive production system of the field, of a much larger capacity than the current FPSO.
The FPSO will have the capacity to process up to 50,000 barrels of oil per day and to inject up to 4 million cubic meters of gas per day, while the next production system should have a capacity of 180.000 barrels of oil per day.
In a separate news on Libra, Reuters has reported that the first oil shipment from Libra is expected to be sent sometime in the first quarter of 2018, several months behind the original plan.
Located in the ultra-deep waters of the Santos Basin offshore Brazil, the Libra field is one of the largest pre-salt oil discoveries ever in Brazil. The National Petroleum Agency (ANP) of Brazil estimates that Libra’s recoverable resources could range from eight to 12 billion barrels of oil and that its peak production could reach 1.4 million barrels per day.
Offshore Energy Today Staff