The Brazilian company signs an agreement with Keppel Shipyard Limited for the construction of an offshore platform

Brazil will have a new platform in its largest oil field with Petrobras

photo_camera REUTERS/SERGIO MORAES - The logo of Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras is seen at its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro

Brazil's Petrobras has signed a contract with Keppel Shipyard Limited to build a new offshore platform in the Buzios area, which represents the largest deepwater oil field in the world and the most productive in Brazil. This platform will have a capacity to process 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day, a new P-78 unit, which makes up the FPSO. The FPSO refers to ship-platforms, whose function is the extraction of oil in the deepest waters of the ocean, which allows production to be stored through underwater wells until it reaches the cargo ships.  

This new platform will have 13 interconnected wells, of which 7 are injectors and 6 will be producers. The entire infrastructure is composed of rigid production pipelines and flexible service pipelines. Petrobras' plan includes the installation of 12 marine platforms for hydrocarbon exploitation until 2030, in Buzios, which is one of the Brazilian exploitation zones considered to have one of the largest oil reserves in the world; Buzios is located 180 kilometres from the Brazilian coast, in the Atlantic Ocean, with a depth of 5,000 metres. Its area extends over 850 square kilometres, where 45 wells have been drilled and so far reserves have been identified up to 480 metres thick, with high quality oil. 

The platform lies beneath a two-kilometre-thick layer of salt, which could make Brazil one of the world's major hydrocarbon producers.  There are currently four platforms in this region, which are responsible for producing only 20% of Petrobras' oil. Petrobras is the fourth largest international oil company in the world, with 14,000 active hydrocarbon extraction wells, 134 production plants, and 15 refineries for transforming crude oil into petrol, it is estimated that Petrobras produces 2 million barrels a day. One of the major losses of this company occurred in 2001, when the oil platform 'Petrobras 36' suffered a series of explosions and on 20 March of that year sank, killing 20 people, at that time the platform was the largest in the world. 

Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra. 

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