Equinor Brasil Energia Ltd., a subsidiary of Equinor ASA, has entered an agreement with MODEC Inc. for a floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel to produce the field cluster of Pao de Acucar, Seat, and Gavea in Block BM-C-33 in the Campos basin, offshore Brazil. The company recently sanctioned project development (OGJ Online, May 8, 2023).
The FPSO will deploy in the presalt at the southern part of the basin, about 200 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, and will be permanently moored at a water depth of about 2,900 m. The spread mooring system will be supplied by MODEC group company SOFEC Inc.
The two-phase lump sum turnkey contract covers both front-end engineering design (FEED) and engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) for the entire FPSO. MODEC also will provide Equinor with FPSO operations and maintenance service for the first year from first oil production, after which Equinor plans to take over as operator.
MODEC will design and construct topsides topsides processing equipment and hull marine systems designed to produce about 125,000 b/d of crude oil and produce and export about 565 MMscfd of associated gas. Its minimum crude oil storage capacity will be 2,000,000 bbl.
The FPSO will apply MODEC’s new build, full double hull design, developed to accommodate larger topsides and larger storage capacity than conventional VLCC tankers, with a longer design service life, the service provider said. The FPSO will be the second fully electrified FPSO equipped with a combined cycle system for power generation to reduce carbon emissions compared with conventional gas turbine driven systems.
Delivery of the FPSO is expected in 2027.
Equinor is operator at BM-C-33 with 35% interest. Partners are Repsol Sinopec Brazil (35%) and Petrobras (30%).
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).