Equinor takes FID on $8bn Brazilian pre-salt project
Norway's Equinor and its partners have taken a final investment decision on the first-phase development of the Bacalhau field in the Brazilian offshore pre-salt area, aiming to extract more than 1bn barrels of oil, it said June 1.
The Bacalhau oil and gas field was found by Brazil's state-owned Petrobras, although Equinor has served as its operator since 2016. The Norwegian firm has a 40% interest in the project, while ExxonMobil has 40% and Galp-owned Petrogal Brasil 20%.
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First oil is scheduled for 2024, though Equinor said the schedule could be adjusted as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. The project will involve 19 subsea subsea tied to a floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO) with a 220,000 barrel/day capacity.
Oil will be offloaded to shuttle tankers while gas will be re-injected into the field's reservoir. The Bacalhau FPSO is capable of handling 15mn m3/day of gas, and Equinor and its partners had earlier considered options for transporting commercial gas supplies to shore. Brazilian regulator ANP approved a development plan for Bacalhau's first phase in March, requesting that the developers file a preliminary study for its second phase by December 31, 2022 that includes a plan for commercialising its gas. There is not enough pipeline capacity to deliver all the basin's potential daily output to shore.
"Bacalhau is an important step towards the realisation of our strategic ambition to deepen our presence in Brazil," Equinor said in a statement. "It is also an important project for the country, as it represents significant investments, ripple effects in the supply chain and local job creation."
ExxonMobil added that Bacalhau would bring in high returns for the partners while Portugal's Galp described it as a world-class project that would contribute significantly to the company's upstream growth.
Equinor also pointed to the field's low lifetime average CO2 intensity of less than 9 kg/barrel, which compares to a global average of 17 kg/b.