Petrobras and its partners have commenced oil and gas production at the P-68 floating production, storage, and offloading unit (FPSO) in the Berbigão field in the Santos Basin pre-salt, Brazil.

Located nearly 230km off the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, at a water depth of 2,280m, the FPSO has an oil processing capacity of 150,000 barrels/day and gas processing capacity of six million m³/day.

The P-68, which includes the interconnection of ten production wells and seven injector wells, will add to Petrobras’ production growth, particularly in 2020. The increase in production will come from the new wells being interconnected in the Berbigão field and the interconnection of wells in the Sururu field. \

Berbigão and Sururu fields are located in the BM-S-11A.

P-68 FPSO is the fourth platform to begin production in 2019 for Petrobras

Equipped with a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels of oil, P-68 becomes the fourth platform for Petrobras to begin production in 2019 after the P-67, P-76 and P-77 platforms.

P-68’s hull was constructed at the Rio Grande shipyard in southern Brazil, while modules integration and commissioning of the final unit commissioning were conducted at the Jurong Aracruz shipyard in southeastern Brazil.

Petrobras is the operator of the BM-S-11A concession with a stake of 42.5%. The Brazilian oil company is partnered by Shell Brasil Petróleo (25%), Total E&P do Brasil (22.5%) and Petrogal Brasil (10%).

Shell upstream director Wael Sawan said: “Brazil is home to some of the best deep-water opportunities in the world and we look forward to working with Petrobras and other partners to progress additional development plans.”

Shell Brasil said that it is executing exploration activities in the Gato do Mato and Alto do Cabo Frio Oeste blocks in the Santos Basin to secure future development.

In 2020, new exploration drilling activity is expected at the Saturno block in the Santos Basin.

Shell stated: “Shell Brasil seeks to be an early mover in areas with discoveries, de-risking these opportunities and driving towards a higher chance of success.”