Libra Consortium has signed a letter of intent with Odebrecht/Teekay (OOG-Teekay), winner of a tender process, for the charter of a FPSO-type platform (floating production, storage and offloading) designed for the extended well test campaign of Libra, in the Santos Basin pre-salt deposits.

The delivery of the FPSO and the start-up of the first extended well test are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2016. The plan is to conduct tests in several areas of the block, in order to evaluate the production performance and acquire information about the Libra area. Based on these data, future definitive production systems will be later designed.

For each of these tests, two wells will be connected to the FPSO: one oil producer and one gas injector. These extended well tests will be the first ones in the global oil industry to carry out a gas reinjection system. The platform will have a processing capacity of 50 thousand barrels of oil per day and a gas injection capacity of 4 millions m3/day. The larger part of the produced gas volume will be re-injected into the reservoir for pressure maintenance and a small part will be consumed during the operations. The FPSO will be operated by a company to be formed by Odebrecht and Teekay.

Two wells have already been spudded

The effort to reach first oil and initiate the production in the Libra area, one of the largest discoveries already made in Brazil, continues at an accelerate pace. In addition to the signing of the letter of intent for the FPSO charter, the consortium has already spudded two exploration wells in the block.

Located in the Santos Basin, at a distance of 183 kilometers off the Rio de Janeiro city coast, Libra has 1,500 square kilometers, slightly bigger than the whole city of Rio de Janeiro. According to the Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency (ANP), the estimated recoverable volume of oil and gas in Libra ranges from 8 to 12 billion of barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

The consortium of Libra is a partnership between Petrobras (operator, with 40%), Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%), having the newly created state company Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A. (PPSA) in the management of the contract. Libra has been the first area auctioned by ANP under the production sharing regime and the contract was signed in December 2013.