The Papa Terra field, located 110 kilometers off the coast at a depth of 1,190 meters, is operated by Petrobras, but Chevron owns a 37.5% stake in it. The project’s total estimated cost is US$ 5.2 billion and the expected return is 380 million barrels of oil.
This will be the first project in Brazil to use a floating cable-tensioned platform, which will be linked to a floating production, processing, storage and offloading platform. The complex will be capable of producing up to 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The cost of each platform is US$ 1 billion.
“The decision attests to our commitment to developing new opportunities in an important field, and expands our strong portfolio of large projects,” said George Kirkland, Chevron’s vice president, in a press release issued by the company. Extraction at the Papa Terra field is expected to start in 2013.
“Once completed, the Papa Terra project is going to be Chevron’s largest investment in Brazil to date, and we expect it to increase production capacity in Brazil, where the company established itself in 2009 with the Frade project,” said Ali Moshiri, the president of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production.
In addition to the Papa Terra and Frade projects, in the Campos Basin, Chevron also owns stakes of 30% in the Maromba field and 20% in the BS-4 block at the Santos Basin.