Petrobras announces that FPSO Cidade de Paraty went onstream this Thursday (June 6) to begin commercial production in the Santos Basin Lula Nordeste pre-salt. The new platform is one of the production projects scheduled for this year in the Business and Management Plan (2013-17 BMP).

Cidade de Paraty is a FPSO platform (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading). It is anchored at a water depth of 2,120 meters, some 300 km off the coast and has the capacity to process up to 120,000 barrels of oil and 5 million cubic meters of gas per day. The 7-LL-11-RJS, the first well to be connected to the platform, has the potential to produce 25,000 barrels per day. However, output in the first month of operation will be restricted to 13,000 barrels of oil per day, and ramped up as natural gas processing and reinjection systems are commissioned. The Lula Nordeste field produces high quality, medium density (29º API) crude which will be taken off by tankers.

Gas output will be piped to the Monteiro Lobato Gas Treatment Unit (UTGCA), in Caraguatatuba (coast of São Paulo state) through the Lula-Mexilhão gas pipeline. Another seven production wells and six injection wells will be connected to the platform in the upcoming months. Peak production of 120,000 barrels of oil per day is expected for the second half of 2014.

The Lula field has an estimated total recoverable volume of 8.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent (oil plus gas) and production started on the FPSO Cidade de Angra dos Reis in 2010, four and a half years after it was discovered in 2006. The Lula Nordeste module is the second of 10 definitive modules for developing the Lula field (including the Iracema area), as detailed in the 2013-17 BMP.

Block BM-S-11 is operated by Petrobras (65%) in partnership with BG E&P Brasil Ltda (25%) and Petrogal Brasil S.A. (10%).