Petrobras to pay $50.8m reais to PPSA related to Tartaruga basin

SAO PAULO: Brazil's state-run oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, will pay 210 million reais ($51 million) to government company Pre-Sal Petroleo SA (PPSA) as part of an agreement signed on Monday involving production in the Tartaruga basin.

Petrobras, as the company is known, started exploring the BM-C-26 area of the basin in 2004 under the country's so-called concession regime. Later, two more oil deposits were found in the basin, one of them outside the area explored by Petrobras.

PPSA said in a statement on Monday that it will collect the 210 million reais from Petrobras related to the government's share of the oil production in the Tartaruga basin, which is 17.85%.

Proceeds are expected to be passed on to the federal government in November, PPSA added. Meanwhile, Petrobras has started production through the FPSO P-68 from the Berbigão field in the presalt Santos basin.

This is the company's fourth start-up this year offshore Brazil following the earlier operations at P-67 (Lula field), and P-76 and P-77, both on the Búzios field.

The P-68, stationed 230 km (143 mi) offshore Rio de Janeiro State in 2,280 m (7,480 ft) water depth, is engineered to process up to 150,000 b/d of oil and compress up MMcm of natural gas.

A second floater, P-70, is due to come onstream in the surrounding BM-S-11A concession in 2020, with a similar oil production capacity. Eventually the facilities will connect to 10 producer wells and seven injectors on the Berbigão and Sururu fields.

Oil is offloaded to shuttle tankers with produced gas transported through the existing presalt offshore gas pipeline routes. The project is known collectively as Iara.

Reservoirs of these fields also extend to areas under the Transfer of Rights Agreement (100% Petrobras) and, after the unitization process, they will compose the joint reservoir of Berbigão and Sururu.

Other partners in BM-S-11A are Shell, Total, and Petrogal Brasil S.A. (10%). Reservoirs of these fields also extend to areas under the Transfer of Rights Agreement (100% Petrobras) and, after the unitization process, they will compose the joint reservoir of Berbigão and Sururu.

Shell, in its report on this development, added an update on some of its other current programs off Brazil, where it anticipates oil and gas production in the current quarter of around 400,000 boe/d.

to 6