BG Group and its consortium partners have started commercial production at the Sapinhoá field in block BM-S-9 offshore Brazil, one of the Group’s “big five” discoveries in the pre-salt Santos Basin.
The Cidade de São Paulo floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel is the first unit deployed on the Sapinhoá field and the second of 15 FPSO vessels planned by the partners in blocks BM-S-9 and BM-S-11 in the first phase of development of the pre-salt Santos Basin. The Cidade de São Paulo has capacity to process 120,000 bbl/d of oil and 176 mcf/d (1.8 bcm/year) of gas. A second FPSO on the Lula field (in block BM-S-11) is also on track for start-up later in 2013. Together, these two new units will more than triple gross processing capacity to 340,000 bbl/d oil and 528 mcf/d (5.4 bcm/year) of gas.
BG Group is the only international oil company with participation in the five big oil discoveries (Lula, Iracema, Sapinhoá, Iara and Carioca) in the pre-salt Santos Basin. BG Group has a 30% interest in Block BM-S-9 (Petrobras, operator, 45% and Repsol Sinopec Brasil 25%). BG Group also has a 25% interest in Block BM-S-11 (Petrobras, operator, 65% and Petrogal Brasil 10%).