Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA: Quote, Profile, Research)(PBR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it started up a small 15,000 barrels per day tanker-based production unit, the first to pump extra heavy oil off Brazil's coast.
The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit called Cidade de Rio das Ostras will pump 12.8 API grade crude from the Siri reserve at the Badejo field in the Campos basin - Brazil's main petroleum production base.
The platform, installed 50 miles (80 km) from the shore, will be used as a pilot project to produce crude from a water depth of 312 feet (95 meters). Petrobras expects to drill more wells and install a bigger platform there after the pilot phase.
"It is the heaviest oil with the highest viscosity to have ever been produced offshore in Brazil," a company spokesman said.
The FPSO, leased from Teekay-Petrojarl (TPO.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) -- the largest FPSO operator in the North Sea -- will also be used as a laboratory to develop other extra heavy crude fields like Marlim Leste, Papa-Terra and Maromba, all in the same basin.
The Siri reserve was discovered in 1975 but the oil was considered too costly to extract. The use of new technologies, including a subsea centrifuge pump combined with a horizontal well, allowed to extract the oil in an economically viable manner, Petrobras said.
Most of the oil produced in Brazil is heavy, but Petrobras has recently found big reserves of light oil.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0134225320080401
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