Equinor and Partners Move Forward on Brazil Pre-Salt
Norway’s Equinor and partners Repsol Sinopec Brasil and Petrobras said March 18 they have approved a development concept for the BM-C-33 gas/condensate field in Brazil’s pre-salt.
“BM-C-33 is a key project in our portfolio and concept selection is an important milestone in our effort to mature the project,” said Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s senior vice president, projects. “It is important to further optimise and improve the project business case to make it more robust for future market.”
Production will be sent to a new-build floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit to be located at the field, about 200 km offshore in water depths of about 2,900 m.
Natural gas, oil and condensate will be processed to sales specifications onboard the FPSO, with crude offloaded by shuttle tankers and shipped to international markets after ship-to-ship transfer to larger tankers. Natural gas will be delivered through an offshore pipeline from the FPSO to a new onshore gas receiving facility inside the Petrobras Tecab site at Cabinuas, which will be connected to Brazil’s domestic gas transmission network.
Gas production capacity is expected to be around 16mn m3/day, while production volumes are expected to average 14mn ft3/day. Daily oil processing capacity is about 20,000 m3.
“BM-C-33 holds substantial volumes of gas,” Veronica Coelho, Equinor’s country manager in Brazil, said. “A completion of the ongoing liberalisation of the natural gas market in Brazil in line with the current plan is key for the further development of the project.”
Equinor holds a 35% interest in BM-C-33 and is the operator. Repsol Sinopec Brasil has a 35% interest, while Brazil’s Petrobras holds the remaining 30%. Repsol Sinopec Brasil drilled the discovery well, Pao de Acucarin in the Campos Basin pre-salt, in 2010; Equinor became operator in 2016.