Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway — Equinor and partners Repsol Sinopec Brasil and Petrobras have sanctioned a $9 billion development of the BM-C-33 fields in the presalt Campos Basin offshore Brazil.
The block contains the Pão de Açúcar, Gávea and Seat accumulations, originally discovered by Repsol in 2010, with combined recoverable gas and oil/condensate reserves of more than 1 Bboe.
The planned 126,000-bbl/d FPSO will have a gas production capacity of 16 MMcm/d and average exports projected at 14 MMcm/d. There will also be facilities to process the gas and oil/condensate and specify these for sale without the need for further onshore processing.
Production should begin in 2028.
According to Veronica Coelho, Equinor’s local country manager in Brazil, the project could deliver 15% of Brazil’s entire gas needs at startup.
BM-C-33 will be Equinor’s second FPSO in Brazil employing combined cycle gas turbines to cut carbon emissions after the current Bacalhau development in the Santos Basin.
Combining a gas turbine with a steam turbine allows excess heat to be exploited that would otherwise be lost. The technology can lower the average CO2 intensity of BM-C-33 over its lifetime to under 6 kg/boe, the company added.
And BM-C-33 should be the first project in the country in which the gas is not only treated offshore but connected to the national grid without the need for further processing onshore.
Sales gas will be exported through a 200-km offshore gas pipeline from the FPSO to reception infrastructure at the Cabiúnas terminal – TECAB - in the city of Macaé, Rio de Janeiro stated. Liquids will be offloaded via shuttle tankers.
Since 2016 Equinor has operated the surrounding license, 200 km from shore and in water depths of up to 2,900 m
05.08.2023
