Petrobras has sent its P-80 platform to sea, the first of six giant units built for the company's pre-salt fields and capable of producing 225,000 barrels of oil and processing 12 million cubic meters of gas a day, among the largest capacities in the world's oil and gas industry. The platform left the Tuas Boulevard Yard shipyard in Singapore on September 30 for the Búzios field in the pre-salt layer of Brazil's Santos Basin, the country's largest field by reserves and production.
The P-80 is the first of the six-platform series to leave the shipyard. The next, the P-82, is in the final stages of construction, and both are expected to start production in 2027.
Built in series, tested for scale
Renata Baruzzi, Petrobras's director of engineering, technology and innovation, said the P-80 has the highest production capacity of any Petrobras platform to date and brings together "some of the most advanced technologies and digital solutions" used in a Petrobras project.
Petrobras says building platforms as a series, rather than one at a time, cuts costs, lifts shipyard productivity, improves system reliability, lowers project risk, and speeds up field development. It is also sending each platform out with its crew already aboard, a step the company says helps get the platform's systems running sooner.
Built across three countries
The P-80's process modules were built in Brazil, at the Seatrium BrasFELS shipyard in Angra dos Reis. The P-82's modules were built at the Seatrium Aracruz shipyard in Espírito Santo. Petrobras says the work has helped train workers and created jobs in Brazil's shipbuilding industry. Other construction took place in China, Singapore, and Indonesia, with modules shipped to Singapore for final assembly.
Petrobras contracted the platforms under an EPC, or engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning, arrangement. Under that model, the contractor handles the unit's engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning before delivering it to Brazil for operation.
Three more platforms are still to come in the series, also bound for Santos Basin pre-salt fields:
- P-83 to the Búzios field
- P-84 to the Atapu field
- P-85 to the Sépia field
Búzios set gas export records in August
In August, Búzios set monthly and daily records for natural gas exports, topping 10 million cubic meters a day for the month and reaching 14.1 million cubic meters in a single day. Petrobras operates the field with partners CNOOC and CNPC, along with Pré-Sal Petróleo SA.
