Weekly Market Update - WSB One - Week 14

new record in oil production

The National Petroleum Agency (ANP) reported that production in the pre-salt totalled 3.268 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, an increase of 2,3% compared to January. This volume surpasses the previous record of 3.142 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, recorded in October 2022. Furthermore, the total Brazilian oil production including pre-salt, post salt and other fields reached 4.183 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. The Tupi field, in Santos Basin pre-salt, was the largest producer of oil registering 824.5 thousand barrels of oil per day. The FPSO with the highest oil and natural gas production was the FPSO Guanabara, which produced 178,776 thousand barrels of oil per day in the Mero field.

cooperation in offshore wind

Last Monday, Petrobras and Equinor have signed a LOI to further extend their cooperation in offshore wind power in Brazil. This cooperation aims to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of seven different projects on the Brazilian coast. The combined power generation of the projects is estimated at 14,5GW. The offshore wind segment is seen with high hopes to support and advance the energy transition worldwide and especially in Brazil, where Petrobras intends to allocate more and more resources into low carbon emission projects. The kick-off of a wind offshore industry in Brazil could serve as incentive for more Construction Support Vessels (CSVs) to be either built or dispatched for projects in the country, a vessel category with very high utilization and that most offshore support owners are shifting their focus to.

petrobras to order FPSOs

Petrobras released this week the tenders to charter two production units for the Sergipe Águas Profundas (SEAP) project. The SEAP-I and SEAP-II units will be deployed in deep waters of the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin, with an expected kick-off in production by 2027, according to the National Oil Company’s latest strategic plan. The design of these units can prove to be more complex and expensive due to specifics of the project. The SEAP-I unit had already been tendered before however, the whole process was cancelled by Petrobras, as it was released under a BOT (BuildOperate-Transfer) concept, that was ultimately considered economically inefficient at the time.

karoon suspends production

The Australian oil company has shut down Baúna´s field production due to a containment incident associated with the high-pressure flare on FPSO Cidade de Itajaí. According to the company, production stoppage happened on March 28th, 2023 in a safe and controlled manner. Altera&Ocyan, the FPSO operators, investigated the source of the leak and made the necessary repairs by March 30th. However, Karoon and Altera&Ocyan have decided to postpone production restart to undertake a full inspection and testing of associated systems. It is expected that production will restart by mid-April.

FPSO Cidade de itajaí