Petrobras announced drilling has started on the first exploration well on the Libra pre-salt area in the Santos basin offshore Brazil.
Drilling on Libra, discovered in 2010, and estimated to contain 8-12 billion boe, comes as marine production, transport and storage firm Teekay Offshore said its 50/50 joint venture with Odebrecht has been nominated by Petrobras as the lead commercial bidder on the Libra FPSO project, subject to final contract negotiations.
Image: Libra, offshore Brazil. Map from Petrobras.
Petrobras' first exploration well on Libra, called 3-RJS-731, is being drilled using the NS-36 (Schahin Cerrado) drillship. 3-RJS-731 is the first of two wells planned for the first phase of Petrobras' Minimum Exploration Program, agreed with Brazil’s National Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency.
Well 3-RJS-731 will reach 5850m final depth (including water and sediments), about 170 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state and about 5km southwest of discovery well 2-ANP-2A-RJS.
The PEM also involves conducting a 3D pre-stack depth migration seismic survey of the whole block area, already completed, as well as an extended well test, to start in December 2016. The entire Minimum Exploration Program will be completed by the end of 2017, Petrobras says.
In connection with being nominated as lead commercial bidder for the Libra FPSO project, Odebrecht has been invited by Petrobras to conclude contract negotiations, according to Teekay Offshore. The FPSO unit is expected to be owned and operated by the 50/50 joint venture and will service Libra pre-salt field. The final contract negotiations are expected to be completed during 3Q 2014. Multiple FPSO units are expected to be required on the field.
The Libra consortium is composed of Petrobras (operator and 40% stakeholder), Shell (20%), Total (20%), CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%), together with Pré-Sal Petróleo S.A. (PPSA), the consortium manager.
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