[Brazil] 9 amazing things you need to know about the most productive pre-salt field

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escveritas
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[Brazil] 9 amazing things you need to know about the most productive pre-salt field

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Around the world in 80 days? While this mission seemed totally unrealistic in the late 19th century, to the point of being one of the extraordinary journeys in French writer Jules Verne’s book collection, these days we can accomplish that very feat in a little more than three days, including plane stopovers. We, human beings, are driven by curiosity, by the desire to explore, to achieve new things. We want to surpass limits and turn the impossible into reality.

And, just like catching a plane and flying to another continent in but a few hours, exploring and producing the pre-salt reservoirs – which are as deep as an incredible 7,000 meters – was made possible by means of a lot of scientific research and technological development.

Curiosities

It was in the Tupi field, which is about 300 km off the coast, that we began our story in the pre-salt, breaking paradigms and paving the way to a new exploratory frontier. Since then, we have accumulated achievements that reflect our role in this extraordinary adventure in ultra-deep waters.

These are the main ones:

1 – We produce approximately 11 barrels in the Tupi field per second
This adds up to more than 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) from a single field. Tupi is the asset with the highest production in deep waters in the world: It accounts for about 45% of the volume produced in the pre-salt, which is already above 2.2 million bpd.

As if that were not enough, did you know that more than 70% of all oil produced in Brazil comes from the pre-salt? Oh, and in the time that you took to read this curiosity, we produced almost 600 barrels.

Production

2 – We reached the accumulated mark of 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent in just 11 years

In just over 11 years since the first oil, Tupi is our second largest field in accumulated production. It trails only Marlim, a post-salt field, which has been producing for over 30 years and took approximately 18 years to reach the 2 billion mark.

3 – If the Tupi field were a country, it would be ahead of a few of the traditional oil producers in a world ranking

The average production would rank the Tupi field in 21st place among the largest oil producers, ahead of countries like Oman and Venezuela. And the pre-salt would be even higher up in this ranking, coming in 11th place, above Nigeria.

And there is a simple reason for this: More than 25% of the global production in deep and ultra-deep waters comes from the pre-salt. To make these comparisons, we use data related to 2019.

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4 – To identify the previously unknown wealth that was under the seabed, we carried out the largest 3D seismic survey of the time in the Santos Basin

Over a four-year period, more than 20,000 km² were mapped, equivalent to the territory of Slovenia or twice the area of Lebanon.

5 – Intensity defines the pace of production system deployment in Tupi, averaging a unit per year

More than the platform, the most visible part of our offshore operations, installing a complete production system requires building and completing several wells, in addition to interconnecting several kilometers of underwater lines.
Below the waterline, 117 wells are installed in the Tupi field, between products and water or gas injectors, and 2,205 km of underwater lines, such as risers, flowlines, and umbilicals. All of this connected to the nine platforms that currently produce in Tupi – the first of which arrived there just four years after field discovery.

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6 – Tupi wells are currently built at a rate three times faster than when operations got underway – which translates into millions of dollars in savings

All this thanks to the evolution of knowledge in the pre-salt layer, to the application of cutting-edge technologies, in addition to the standardization of subsea equipment and flexible pipelines, among other advances.

7 – Going where no one had gone before demanded the development of innovative technologies, which earned us the top prize in the offshore oil industry

In 2015, we were granted the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) for the set of ten technologies applied under unique conditions in the Santos Basin pre-salt complex, an unprecedented feat in the industry. Of these, nine were used in Tupi.

And it is at this very field that we continue our development journey supported by technologies, this time with the digital twins project, which will start being used on the P-66.

8 – More than the history of Petrobras, Tupi marked the history of Brazil

Such production, with high daily volumes in the Tupi field, enabled the distribution of more than R$100 billion in royalties and special take from 2010 to 2019.

9 – Our extraordinary history in the Tupi field has but began, with only 5% of the deposit produced so far
It feels like it happened yesterday, but it has been 20 years since we acquired the BM-S-11 block, where Tupi is located, under a concession regime and in partnership with Petrogal and Shell.

And we will go much further: Considering that only 5% of the reservoir has been produced, there is still a lot of potential ahead. According to our projections, Tupi will continue to be the most productive field in Brazil in the coming years.

More than a starting point for pre-salt production, Tupi was the engine of its development and the open-air laboratory of innovations that allowed unprecedented advances in that province. Thanks to Tupi, we have reached unprecedented levels of production, set record after record, and left an unprecedented legacy for the industry.

It was because of the accumulated learning made from this asset that today we can develop other pre-salt fields such as Búzios and Mero, in a scenario that is promising and full of new opportunities.
escveritas
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Re: [Brazil] 9 amazing things you need to know about the most productive pre-salt field

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Characteristics of The pre-salt

Located in an area of approximately 800 km in length and 200 km in width in the territorial sea between the states of Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo, the Pre-salt Polygon is among the most important discoveries of oil and natural gas in recent years.

The total depth – distance between sea surface and the oil reservoirs below the salt layer – can reach up to 7,000 meters. Reserves are composed of large accumulations of high-quality light oil featuring high commercial value.

Pre-salt oilfield production rates are substantial. Daily production rates have increased from 41,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2010 to 1.41 million bpd in 2018, or about 34-fold.

Brazil’s pre-salt oilfields are today among the largest producers globally (see chart below).

In the current pricing environment, a major challenge facing pre-salt operators is to reconcile cost reduction and increased oil well productivity on the one hand, with operational and environmental safety on the other.

The pre-salt discoveries have further established Brazil as a leading player in the global energy industry, and are providing important inputs for Brazil’s economic development.

The origin of the pre-salt

The pre-salt is a sequence of sedimentary rocks formed more than 100 million years ago, following the break-up of the old continent Gondwana, generating the regions currently identified as South America and Africa.

Great depressions were formed between the two currently existing continents, originating great lakes, which accumulated large amounts of organic matter in their deeper regions, mainly from microscopic algae. Such organic matter combined with sediments to make up the pre-salt oil and gas generating rocks. After a process featuring high temperatures and pressure, the organic matter was converted into oil and gas, in a process called “generation”.

In the shallower parts of the lakes, in large lacustrine islands, calcareous shells (the coquinas) and, later, stromatolites – which are a type of seaweed that originates calcareous rocks – were accumulated. These two types of deposits constitute the main pre-salt reservoirs.

Following the above described process, the great lakes, originally lacustrine systems, were connected to the oceans, becoming a restricted marine system and leading to the formation of an extensive gulf. Due to the period’s prevailing arid climate (the Aptian), intense seawater evaporation, which invaded these lake depressions, resulted in the accumulation of a thick layer of salt that worked as a seal to prevent the oil from escaping to the surface.
escveritas
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Re: [Brazil] 9 amazing things you need to know about the most productive pre-salt field

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Santos Basin
Santos Basin – The pre-salt house

Brazil has sealed its destiny as an important oil reserve holder and producer with the discovery of pre-salt carbonate reservoirs in the Campos and Santos basins.

In the Santos Basin, the pre-salt reservoirs have signaled an improved development and consequent greater productivity. This sedimentary basin covers about 350,000 square kilometers and goes from Cabo Frio, in the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), to Florianópolis, in the state of Santa Catarina (SC).

The first exploration investments in the Santos Basin date back to the 1970s. In the 1990s and 2000s, several discoveries were made in post-salt reservoirs, however, with modest reserves and often with heavy oil, although there is good quality oil, mainly in the southern portion of the basin.

Geoscientists’ increasing expertise naturally required testings for the occurrence of potential deeper reservoirs of the sedimentary stratum. Perforations detected reservoirs below the salt layer, which, however, had to be analyzed.

In May 2009, a Long-Term Test (TLD) in the area then called Tupi, now known as Lula Field, was carried out and pointed out the first evidence of the value of the pre-salt reservoirs. This date, according to information on the Petrobras website, is a milestone for oil production in the country. Subsequently, in 2010, the first Definitive Production System in the Lula Field (Lula Pilot) was started.

The discovery of pre-salt brought opportunities and challenges. Opportunities for the establishment of partnerships between operators, suppliers of goods and services, universities and research centers. Opportunities for local contracting. The challenges that have been overcome are many-sided: logistical (distance from the coast), technological (high water depth, thick layer of salt to be drilled, presence of contaminants in the oil) and, consequently, cost challenges (high initial drilling costs, well completion costs) – challenges that impact on project economics, especially in a scenario where Brent’s price is below USD 60/barrel.
escveritas
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Re: [Brazil] 9 amazing things you need to know about the most productive pre-salt field

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Campos Basin
Campos Basin – Where It All Starts

Campos Basin was the first discovery to feature great exploration potential and the challenge of reaching deep waters. Today, almost 40 years later, it accounts for more than 80% of the country’s oil production.

The Campos Basin was formed 100 million years ago during the breakup of the South American and African continents, which resulted in the formation of a “natural landfill” of sediments discharged into the Atlantic Ocean during this period. These sentiments decomposed under varying levels of pressure and temperature, creating subsea accumulations of oil and gas in porous rock.

The first oilfield with commercial volumes of oil—Garoupa—was discovered in 1974 at a water depth of 124 m. This was followed by the Namorado discovery, then the Enchova discovery in 1976, from which commercial production began on August 13, 1977 through an Early Production System utilizing the semi-submersible Sedco 135-D, producing 10,000 bpd.

Campos Basin area covers about 100,000 square kilometers, extending from the state of Espírito Santo, close to Vitória, to Arraial do Cabo, in the northern coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Enchova’s EPS was the first technological milestone of oil production at sea, in an effort towards deeper waters. It enabled a drop in the maturity period from 48/62 months to only four months. Improvements in terms of agility and operational flexibility were implemented, as well as great investments savings. The system provided for the set off-of oil production while fixed platforms were built to be installed later.

That period of discovery and development was a proud and important one, because it was from that point on that, later, oil extraction from deep and ultra-deep waters were made possible.

Going forward with the Campos Basin expansion process, the country’s first large, deep waters field was discovered in 1984. It was named Albacora. Later, other giant fields were identified, such as Marlim, Roncador, Barracuda and Caratinga. In addition to these, also of great size, the following were discovered in the northern part of the basin, in the state of Espírito Santo: Jubarte and Cachalote, in an area that became known as “Parque das Baleias” (Whale Park).

Campos Basin was, and still is, a massive open-air lab, where the main offshore technologies, that are groundbreaking in many ways, are tested for the development of production projects in water line depths (distance between the surface and the seabed) never tried before in the world.

Achievements in the Campos Basin led Brazil to overcome yet another challenge: to become oil self-sufficient in April 2006.

The basin currently accounts for 42% of Brazil’s total production, producing 1,373,068 boe per day (according to ANP data from February 2018).

Oil production rates in the Campos Basin will gradually decline by about 9% per year to 2021, below the industry average of 12%, according to Petrobras’s business plan.
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