Buzios (formerly Franco) field is located within the Cessão Onerosa (Transfer of Rights) region of the pre-salt Santos Basin. The offshore field, covering an area of 416km², is situated approximately 200km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro at water depths ranging from 1,600m to 2,100m.
Petrobras, the sole owner of the field, presented the proposal for the Declaration of Commerciality to the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP) of Brazil in December 2013. The construction of four floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units out of the five FPSOs planned for the field are underway.
Petrobras aims to produce 3.058 billion barrels of oil equivalent from the Brazilian field. First production from the field is expected in the third quarter of 2016.
Buzios field discovery and exploration
Buzios field was discovered in 2010 by the 2-ANP-1-RJS (Franco) discovery well, which flowed at an initial test rate of 50,000boepd from the pre-salt reservoir.
“First production from the field is expected in the third quarter of 2016.”
Drilling of the extension well, known as the 3-BRSA-1184-RJS (3-RJS-723 / Franco Leste), situated 7.5km south-east of Franco, was completed in November 2013. It was drilled to a total depth of 5,900m and encountered a 396m column of oil.
Petrobras has so far acquired 3D seismic data for the entire area, and has drilled two mandatory wells and six additional wells at the field. The field’s oil quality is rated between 26º and 28º API.
FPSOs for Buzios (Franco)
The four FPSOs, P-74, P-75, P-76 and P-77, are all being converted from very large crude carriers (VLCCs). P-76 will have a designed daily production capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil and seven million cubic metres of gas, while the other three vessels will have a designed daily production capacity of 150,000 barrels of oil and seven million cubic metres of gas.
P-74 will be installed within the Franco 1 (Buzios 1) area, P-75 will be installed at Franco SW (Búzios 2), P-76 will be installed at Franco Sul (Búzios 3) and P-77 will be installed at Franco NW (Búzios 4).
P-74 and P-75 are scheduled for commissioning in the third and fourth quarters of 2016 respectively, while P-76 and P-77 are scheduled for commissioning in the third and fourth quarters of 2017 respectively. Each vessel will provide accommodation for 110 people. The proposed fifth FPSO is expected to come online in late 2019.
Contractors involved with Buzios
Topsides of P-74 are being constructed by EBR, a consortium formed by Setal and Toyo, while those of P-76 are being constructed by Technip-Technit, a consortium of Technip Brazil and Techint. Technip-Technit consortium has contracted Bureau-Veritas to conduct the safety studies for P-76.
The contract for the construction and integration of the topside modules for P-75 and P-77 was awarded to RIG Consortium formed by Queiroz Galvão, Camargo Correa and IESA.
Conversion of the hulls of all four VLCCs into FPSO platforms are being performed by Enseada Indústria Naval, a joint-venture (JV) of Odebrecht, OAS, UTC and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI). Accommodation modules on all four FPSOs will be installed by BSL, a JV of SBM Offshore and Naval Ventures Corp (Synergy Group).
Aibel has been subcontracted by EBR to fabricate five modules for P-74. The lifting, transportation and installation of P-74’s accommodation and service modules at Rio de Janeiro were performed by ALE, while the transportation of the foundation decks is being performed by Jumbo.
West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) Development, Egypt
West Delta Deep Marine (WDDM) concession in the Mediterranean Sea comprises 19 gas fields.
GE Oil & Gas will supply the main turbomachinery equipment for the four new FPSOs. The equipment will comprise 16 powergen turbogenerators, featuring PGT25+ gas turbines and electric generators, eight turbocompression trains driven by LM2500+ gas turbines and two electric motor-driven compressors for gas main, export services and CO2 re-injection.
Dresser-Rand will supply its DATUM compressor trains for the FPSOs, while Flenco has been subcontracted to supply 16 synthetic oil systems by GE and two lube oils for lubricating the compressors by Dresser-Rand.
Technip subcontracted Frames to supply the gas dehydration unit and internals for the production separators of P-76. GEA do Brasil is supplying 56 shell-and-tube heat exchangers for P-75 and P-77.
Novenco Marine & Offshore is supplying HVAC equipment for the M-17 electrical module on P-74, including the AC system engineering and equipment delivery for the living quarters of all the vessels.
Quick-release offshore hooks and associated monitoring and control systems for the FPSOs will be supplied by Mampaey Offshore Industries. Aluminium stand-off anodes for the FPSOs were supplied by Syncor. EPS and Emerson are supplying the meter2 products for FPSOs P-74, P-75 and P-77.
