Petrobras Santos Basin Pre-Salt Oil Field CCS Project
PROJECT PROPONENTS:
Capture, Transport and Storage:
- Lula Field: Petrobras holds a 65 per cent interest, with partners BG E&P Brasil Ltda. (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, 25 per cent) and Petrogal Brasil SA (10 per cent).
- Sapinhoá Field: Petrobras holds a 45 per cent interest, with partners BG E&P Brasil Ltda. (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, 30 per cent) and RepsolSinopec Brasil S.A (25 per cent)n
LOCATION: Offshore, Santos Basin, Brazil
- CO2 capture source: Floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels anchored in the Santos Basin, approximately 300 km / 186 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- CO2 storage site: CO2 is injected into the Lula and Sapinhoá oil fields located in the Santos Basin, off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
INDUSTRY (FEEDSTOCK): Natural gas processing (natural gas)
OVERALL PROJECT LIFECYCLE STAGE: Operate
CO2 CAPTURE CAPACITY VOLUME: Approximately 1 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa)
CAPTURE TYPE: Pre-combustion capture (natural gas processing)
CAPTURE METHOD: Membrane process, with four FPSO-based CO2 separation and reinjection systems in operation in 2016: two located at the Lula field (FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis and FPSO Cidade de São Paulo) and two at the Sapinhoá field (FPSO Cidade de Paraty and FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela, the latter began CO2 injection operations in the second half of 2016)
NEW BUILD OR RETROFIT: New Build
CO2 CAPTURE START DATE: 2013
PRIMARY STORAGE OPTION: Enhanced oil recovery
STORAGE FORMATION AND DEPTH: Pre-salt carbonate reservoir at a depth of between 5,000-7,000 metres (16,400- 23,000 feet) below sea level
TRANSPORTATION TYPE: No transport required (direct injection)
TRANSPORTATION DISTANCE TO STORAGE SITE: Not applicable
Project description
The Lula and Sapinhoá oil fields are sub-salt discoveries and form part of several discoveries in an area of the South Atlantic Ocean known as the Santos Basin Pre-Salt Cluster (SBPSC), located in the Santos Basin, approximately 300 km / 186 miles off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Lula was discovered in 2006 and is one of the largest oil field discoveries in Brazil, with estimated recoverable reserves of 8.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
- Sapinhoá was discovered in 2008 and has estimated recoverable reserves of 1-2 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
The hydrocarbon reservoirs in the SBPSC are located in ultra-deep waters that can exceed 2,000 metres / 6,500 feet in depth. The reservoirs range in depth from 5,000 to 7,000 metres (16,400 to 23,000 feet) below sea level, under a thick salt layer (that is more than 2,000 metres / 6,500 feet thick in places).
Development of carbonate reservoirs presents several challenges (e.g. complex pore geometry and large scale permeability variation) which can become more significant in deep offshore environments. As offshore developments require careful planning – due to lack of space on platforms for process alterations – initial application of enhanced oil recovery methods (including CO2 injection) needs to be considered at the early planning stages.
The thick salt column traps a light, 28-30 degree oil and a high solution gas ratio. As in other carbonate reservoirs, the solution gas contains CO2 in its composition that varies from 8-15 per cent. The ultra-deep waters make the SBPSC a pioneer in CO2-EOR development, with the deepest CO2 injection wells in operation.
A strategy of phased development and dynamic data acquisition has been adopted to minimise full field development risks. The first FPSO system to enter production was the Lula pilot in October 2010 (FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis). The Sapinhoá pilot followed in January 2013 (FPSO Cidade de São Paulo). Since that time to mid-2016 another five FPSO systems have been put in operation as part of the pre-salt Santos Basin development. Four of these FPSO production systems include CO2 separation and injection elements, two are located on the Lula field and two on the Sapinhoá field.
Approximately one million tonnes per annum of CO2 from the existing development will be injected into the Lula and Sapinhoá fields. In December 2015, the Santos Basin Pre-Salt development reached the milestone of three million tonnes of CO2 having been injected into these two fields.
The produced oil is offloaded into tankers and transported to shore. To allow export of purified natural gas, gas processing units onboard the FPSO are designed to separate the CO2 from the gas stream using filtration membrane technology. Once separated, the gas output is transported to the Monteiro Lobato Gas Treatment Unit in Caraguatatuba, Sao Paulo, via the Lula-Mexilhão gas pipeline. This two-part pipeline system (total length of 359 kilometres) is known as the ‘Route 1’ and has a flow capacity of 10 million cubic metres per day.
With the expansion in hydrocarbon production capacity in the Santos Basin since first production, a second offshore pipeline became operational in February 2016 (the ‘Route 2’ pipeline) linking the production systems of the pre-salt Santos Basin to the Cabiúnas Gas Treatment Plant, located near Macaé (Rio de Janeiro State). The ‘Route 2’ pipeline is approximately 400 kilometres in length and has a flow capacity of 13 million cubic metres of gas per day. The gas processing capacity at the Cabiúnas Gas Treatment Plant was also upgraded (to approximately 28 million cubic metres per day) in order to receive gas from both the pre-salt Santos Basin and Campos Basin developments.
Latitude: -25.5
Longitude: -43.5
Key Project Milestones
July 2006: Lula oil field discovered.
May 2009: Extended well tests commenced to study development options for the pre-salt reservoirs.
2010: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Lula Pilot FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis had commenced.
January 2013: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Sapinhoá Pilot FPSO Cidade de São Paulo had commenced.
June 2013: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Lula Notheast FPSO Cidade de Paraty had commenced.
October 2014: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Lula/Iracema South FPSO Cidade de Mangaratiba had commenced.
November 2014: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Sapihoá Noth FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela had commenced.
July 2015: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Lula/Iracema North FPSO Cidade de Itaguaí had commenced.
February 2016: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Lula FPSO Cidade de Maricá had commenced.
July 2016: Petrobras announced that commercial production from the Central Lula FPSO Cidade de Saquarema had commenced.
August 2016: Petrobras announced commissioning of fourth CO2 separation and injection system (aboard the FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela) in the pre-salt Santos Basin.