The Pioneer Libra FPSO platform ship left the Jurong shipyard in Singapore on Tuesday and began its journey to the Libra block in the Santos Basin pre-salt. The FPSO, chartered by the Libra Consortium to the OOGTK Consortium, will be used in the Libra Block Long-Term Test (TLD) program.

The unit is the result of the conversion of the Navion Norvegia oil tanker and has the capacity to process 50,000 barrels of oil per day and compress and reinject 4 million m3 / day of associated gas. FPSO (Floating Production Storage Offloading Unit) is the acronym in English that identifies a floating unit of production, storage and transfer of oil.

The platform is expected to arrive in Brazil in early June and its first long-term test will begin in mid-2017. The FPSO will be the first to operate in the Libra block. The purpose of the TLD is to reduce risks and optimize the area's definitive production systems.

The Libra Consortium is formed by Petrobras (operator with 40%), Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%), having as manager of the production-sharing contract, Pre-Sal Petróleo S.A. (PPSA).