Jubarte Field, Brazil

Jubarte Field is 70km offshore the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, adjoining the Coachote field. It lies at 1,300m water depth. It is located in the northern Campos Basin in Block BC-60.

Discovered in January 2001, the field is owned and operated by Petrobras. When discovered the project was Petrobras's largest discovery since 1996. Oil reserves were estimated to be about 600 million barrels.

The field is a pre-salt area where oil and gas deposits are stuck under the layer of salt. The salt layer leads to difficulty in tapping the potential.

Field development

Petrobras obtained the licence to conduct long-term tests at the field in July 2002. The same year testing started with the installation of FPSO Seillean. Operations began in October 2002 following the drilling of well 3 ESS-110H. The well was drilled horizontally until 1,300m within the oil-bearing formation. Development of the field was planned under three stages: pilot, phase one and phase two. The commercial feasibility of the field was confirmed in December 2002 with the start of the production pilot.

The pilot phase, aimed at long duration testing, included production via 3 ESS-110H. During the testing period the well produced 16,500 barrels of oil and 100,000m³ of natural gas a day. Oil extracted from the well was stored in FPSO Seillean to transport it to the refineries. Until January 2006 the well ESS-110 HPA produced 20,000b/d.

Phase one production started in late 2006 with the start of operations of FPSO JK (P-34), which had a processing capacity of up to 60,000 barrels. Phase one covered four producing wells.

The Jubarte-4 horizontal well produces 15,000b/d of heavy oil, with API gravity of 17º. The other three wells contribute nominal capacities. With FPSO JK (P-34), the first pre-salt production resulted in production up to 18,000b/d in September 2008.

Operations at the P-34 platform stopped temporarily due to the failure of a valve in January 2009. Phase two is expected to start production in 2011 through FPSO P-57. About 15 producing wells and seven injection wells have been planned under phase two.

Platforms

The floating platform FPSO Seillean was originally built as a "single well oil production ship". It was upgraded into a deepwater vessel in 1997-98. It produces crude oil from wells, stores the produce and transports it to tankers. FPSO Seillean can be repositioned and the processing plant has been adapted to handle the oil type at the field.

The FPSO JK (P-34) was named after former Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek. It was initially deployed in the Campos Basin and later modified for use at the Jubarte field.

The contract for FPSO P-57 was awarded to SBM Offshore in January 2008. SBM's tanker MT Accord will be converted to the FPSO through hull and marine conversion. SBM awarded the conversion contract to Keppel Offshore and Marine in October 2008. Petrobras is expected to receive the FPSO by the end of 2010.

Infrastructure

In May 2007 Aker was awarded two supply contract by Petrobras for a gas pipeline-end manifold to the Jubarte phase two project. Delivery is expected in 2010.

The work includes a gas pipeline end manifold with six slots, a data acquisition and monitoring system and vertical connection modules, along with tools, accessories and spares. The manifold for the project will be deployed at 1,193m water depth and tied with the Sul Capixaba gas export pipeline.

In November 2009 Aker Solutions secured a $37m contract for supplying eight subsea boosting systems (Moho) and one emergency valve (ESDV) for the project.

Production

The first oil in the pre-salt layer at the field was produced in September 2008. Production from the well was expected to be 10,000b/d to 15,000b/d. However, it produced 18,000b/d. The production enables the company to develop pre-salt reserves offshore Brazil.