Petrobras FPSO Produces First Oil in Jubarte Field

The Maria Quitéria platform ship of Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) produced its first oil in the Jubarte field, pre-salt in the Espírito Santo portion of the Campos Basin off the southeastern coast of Brazil.

The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit can produce up to 100,000 barrels of oil a day and process up to 5 million cubic meters of gas, Petrobras said in a news release. It will be interconnected to a total of eight producing wells and eight injectors. Initially targeted for 2025, production for FPSO Maria Quitéria started ahead of schedule.

The FPSO is equipped with technologies to reduce emissions with greater operational efficiency and a reduction of around 24 percent in operational greenhouse gas emissions, Petrobras noted. With a height of 156 meters and a length of 333 meters, the FPSO is installed at a water depth of 1,385 meters. It will also have the capacity to generate 100 megawatts (MW) of energy to supply a city of 230,000 inhabitants.

Petrobras is the sole holder of the production rights for the Jubarte field, located in the area known as Parque das Baleias in Espírito Santo.

The Parque das Baleias area is made up of the Jubarte, Baleia Anã, Cachalote, Caxaréu, Pirambú and Mangangá fields. The first field, Jubarte, was discovered in 2001. In 2019, Petrobras and the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) signed an agreement to extend the concession period until 2056 for the new unified Jubarte field. This enabled the implementation of FPSO Maria Quitéria, the latest production system for the Parque das Baleias Integrated Project, as well as complementary projects in the area, according to the release.

Three other platforms operate in Parque das Baleias: P-57, P-58, and FPSO Cidade de Anchieta. When Maria Quitéria starts operating at full load, this unit will account for around 40 percent of the field's production, Petrobras said.

The Jubarte field was also the site of a pilot project by the Brazilian oil major to increase production. In August, it validated technology that could increase production by roughly one percent.

The Lift and Flow Digital Twin technology developed by the Brazilian company ESSS was validated and is ready for use after two years of testing, Petrobras said in an earlier news release.

The company’s Cidade de Anchieta and P-57 FPSO platforms, operating in the Jubarte field in the Espírito Santo state’s pre-salt and post-salt layers, participated in the pilot project that demonstrated the effectiveness of the tool.

The technology provides real-time production system data, boosting the lift and flow process, which corresponds to carrying the oil produced from the bottom of the wells to the production platforms. The digital twin can also preempt incidents that may compromise production and enable solution virtual testing, according to the release.

According to Petrobras' Exploitation and Production Director Sylvia Anjos, “the Lift and Flow Digital Twin technology can be used in all Petrobras' offshore production and injection wells. We’ll start using the tools in maritime wells of other units no later than this year”.

“Petrobras devised a Digital Twin prototype that formed the basis to specify the technology. This preliminary solution was born in the Espírito Santo Business Unit (UN-ES). We needed to develop a similar but more robust, commercial, sustained, and scalable system for the company’s offshore wells,” Renata Baruzzi, Petrobras engineer, said.

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