Petrobras sees slight output dip in February 2012
Petrobras as operator produced 2.45 million b/d of oil equivalent in Brazil in February 2012, consisting of 2.1 million b/d of oil and 2 bcfd of natural gas.
The total was down slightly from January 2012 due to scheduled shutdown of the Caraguatatuba-Taubate gas pipeline, completion of the extended well test at Aruana in the Campos basin, and shutdown of the Dynamic Producer FPWSO that had been performing an EWT at Carioca Northeast after a failure in the vertical production testing column.
During February, Petrobras started producing oil into the Cidade de Sao Vicente FPSO at Iracema in the Santos basin presalt cluster.
The Sao Vicente is connected to the RJS-647 well in 2,212 m of water. The EWT is to last 6 months to gather data to support a permanent production system using the Cidade de Mangaratiba FPSO to go on stream in late 2014. Petrobras is operator with 65% interest, BG Group has 25%, and Petrogal Brasil SA 10%.
Petrobras completed EWTs at Tiro and Sídon, declared them commercial, and changed their names to Bauna and Piracaba, respectively. The two Petrobras 100% postsalt fields are in the BM-S-40 block in the southern Santos basin.
Alan Petzet | Chief Editor Exploration
Alan Petzet is Chief Editor-Exploration of Oil & Gas Journal in Houston. He is editor of the Weekly E&D Newsletter, emailed to OGJ subscribers, and a regular contributor to the OGJ Online subscriber website.
Petzet joined OGJ in 1981 after 13 years in the Tulsa World business-oil department. He was named OGJ Exploration Editor in 1990. A native of Tulsa, he has a BA in journalism from the University of Tulsa.