Accident Shuts Down Petrobras' P-34 Platform in Jubarte Field

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Dow Jones Newswires

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones Newswires), Jan. 5, 2009

Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR) said Monday that an accident shut down operations at the company's P-34 platform in the Jubarte field.

According to Petrobras' press office, one oil worker was killed and two others injured after a valve failed on the platform late Sunday. Crews were on site to investigate the cause of the accident.

Production at the P-34 platform, which is a floating production, storage and offload vessel, or FPSO, was temporarily halted, a Petrobras spokeswoman said. The P-34 platform is anchored about 130 kilometers off the coast of Espirito Santo state's capital Vitoria.

The company has not yet determined how long it will take to restart production at the platform.

The P-34 platform made headlines late last year, when it produced the first oil from Brazil's promising subsalt region. In September, Petrobras connected a subsalt well drilled years earlier to the P-34 platform at the Jubarte field. The well has since been producing light sweet crude at the rate of between 12,000 and 14,000 barrels a day, company officials said late last month.  

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