Brazilian oil company Petrobras has brought online the first two wells of the increased oil recovery (IOR) project at Roncador project offshore Brazil, almost five months ahead of schedule and at half of the planned cost, Equinor, Petrobras' partner in the project, said Wednesday.
"This represents an important milestone in the development of the field, increasing recovery rates, adding valuable production and demonstrating the potential to leverage new technology," Equinor said.
The two wells are the first of a series of IOR wells to reach production. The wells add a combined ~20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to Roncador, bringing daily production to approximately 150,000 barrels and reducing the carbon intensity (emissions per barrel produced) of the field.
"Through this first IOR project, the partnership will drill 18 wells, which are expected to provide additional recoverable resources of 160 million barrels. Improvements in well design and the partners’ combined technological experience are the main drivers behind the 50% cost reduction across the first six wells, including the two in production," Equinor said.
Roncador is Brazil’s fifth-largest producing asset and has been in production since 1999. Petrobras is the operator of the field (75% equity) with Equinor (25% equity) entering the project in 2018 as a strategic partner.
In addition to the 18 IOR wells planned, the Petrobras and Equinor believe they can improve recovery even more, with a goal of increasing recoverable resources by 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Under a license that runs until 2052, the field has more than 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent in place. The strategic cooperation deal also includes a program for Roncador to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.
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