Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras is set to add 150,000b/d to its pre-salt production capacity with the startup of the Cidade de Ilhabela floating platform.

The unit, the first of three floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels being built at Rio de Janeiro state's Brasa shipyard, is due online by October, Petrobras said in a statement.

All are earmarked for ultra-deepwater fields off Brazil's southeast coast, with the final two units scheduled to begin production by 2017.

Cidade de Ilhabela, which has a storage capacity of up to 1.6Mb, will operate in the Santos basin's Sapinhoá Norte field, about 310km off the coast of São Paulo state.

According to Petrobras, local firms are responsible for 65% of the vessels' construction, meeting the government's local content rules.