AmericasOffshore

First oil flows from Brazil’s offshore Libra field

Oil has begun to flow from Brazil’s vast Libra offshore field, according to Reuters.

A consortium of oil industry giants, led by Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras, announced the milestone on Monday.

Petrobras has a 40% operating stake in Libra. Other members of the consortium comprise France’s Total (20%), Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell (20%) and Chinese companies CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%).

Libra is an ultra-deepwater field in the Santos Basin about 140 miles offshore Rio de Janeiro. Discovered in 2010, it is believed to contain between 8bn and 12bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

The floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Pioneer of Libra has capacity to produce 50,000 barrels of oil and 4 million cubic metres of gas per day.

Investment decisions about extra FPSOs are expected soon.

It is the first presalt reservoir sold under the country’s production-sharing regime, which allowed private and foreign firms to be involved in Brazilian oil and gas projects.

Last month (October) Brazil had delayed its expected date for first oil from Libra.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
Back to top button