Offshore staff
RIO DE JANEIRO – Petrobras says the NS-36 rig (Schain Cerrado) has spudded the first exploration well in the Libra area in the presalt Santos basin. The location is 170 km (105 mi) offshore Rio de Janeiro state and 5 km (3.1 mi) southwest of discovery well 2-ANP-2A-RJS.
The 3-RJS-731 well is the first planned for the first phase of the minimum exploration program agreed with Brazil’s National Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP).
It will be drilled to a final depth of 5,850 m (19,193 ft). Duringdrilling, tests will be conducted to acquire data ahead of a development of the Libra field.
Aside from the wells, the program calls for a 3D pre-stack depth migration seismic survey of the entire block area (already completed) and an extended well test, due to start in December 2016. All work must be concluded by the end of 2017.
Petrobras’ partners in theLibra consortium are Shell, Total, CNPC and CNOOC, with Pré-Sal Petróleo as consortium manager.
According to shipping contractor Teekay, its partner Odebrecht Oil & Gas was nominated by Petrobras as the lead commercial bidder for the Libra FPSO project, and has been invited to conclude contract negotiations.
Teekay/Odebrecht will likely own and operate the FPSO, which should start operations in early 2017. Final contract negotiations are expected to be completed during the current quarter.
08/07/2014
