Brazil to Increase Oil Production by 5% This Year

Oil production in Brazil should grow by 5.3% this year to reach a daily average of 480,000 barrels, according to the assessment of state-controlled oil company Petrobras. In addition to the start of operations at platform P-51 – which  will add approximately 180,000 oil barrels per day to the national production when operating at full capacity -, also contributing to increase the Brazilian production will be four new oil and gas production units that Petrobras should inaugurate before the end of this year.

To the company, the significant production boost is ensured by the implementation of oil extraction in platforms P-50, FPSO Capixaba (in the southeastern Brazilian state of Espí­rito Santo), P-34, and FPSO Cidade do Rio de Janeiro – all of which are operational.

Petrobras currently has three other platforms under construction: the P-51, whose work is being carried out by the Brasfels shipyard, located in Angra dos Reis, in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro; the P-53, for which a shipyard from Singapore is in charge of building the hull, but assembly is being carried out by the Rio Grande shipyard, in the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul; and the P-54, under the responsibility of the Mauá-Jurong shipyard.

The P-15 platform, a semi-submersible type unit, is being built at a cost of US$ 845 million and should generate 2,500 direct jobs, as well as 7,500 indirect ones. The unit will operate in the Marlim Sul Field, with production capacity for 180,000 barrels per day, and compression capacity for 6 million cubic meters of gas.

The beginning of operation is scheduled for the first quarter next year. The P-54 platform, which will also produce approximately 180,000 barrels of oil a day when operating at full capacity, will be installed in the Roncador Field, at the Campos Basin (Rio de Janeiro), in the second half of 2007.

For the P-53, construction of the hull was assigned to a shipyard in Singapore, and assembly work was assigned to Estaleiro Rio Grande shipyard, in Rio Grande do Sul. The unit should also process 180,000 barrels of oil per day, but should only become operational in 2009.

Together, these units and others, currently in tender and project development phases, such as the P-56 and P-57 platforms, should raise Petrobras production, by 2011, to approximately 3.493 million barrels of oil and gas, a volume that should increase to 4.556 million in 2015, according to information supplied by Petrobras.

Also forecasted is the development of 15 large oil production projects, and 10 other projects for natural gas, by 2011 – which should increase gas supply in southeastern Brazil to 40 million cubic meters per day in 2008, within the context of the Plan for Anticipation of Gas Production (Plangás).

ABr