Baker Hughes Subsea Systems in Brazil

Petrobras has been using the Baker Hughes Centrilift subsea pressure boosting system in the deepwater Jubarte Field offshore Brazil in the Campos Basin for about three years now. The one megawatt electrical submersible pumping system (ESP) was installed at Jubarte in November 2005, but was not brought on line until 2007, following hook up of the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.
The system is producing approximately 22,000 BPD in 4,600 feet of water. Petrobras installed at least eight additional vertical booster stations using ESP technology at Jubarte in the months following the first system going online..
Baker Hughes Centrilift also has supplied various multi-phase ESP systems to Petrobras for subsea pressure boosting in the Espadarte and Golfinho fields offshore Brazil to name a few. The Espadarte Field is a subsea development in 4,600 feet of water in the Campos Basin. Flow rates have totaled about 19,000 BPD per well. The subsea Golfinho Field is in 4,800 feet of water offshore southeast Brazil and flow rates from the field are 28,000 BPD per well. It is important to note that these figures are a bit outdated and that current output figures may actually be higher.
At the time the first system went online, Peter Lawson, Baker Hughes Centrilift subsea development manager, noted, “The successful start up of the ESP at Jubarte, after 17 months in the well, validates the trust Petrobras has shown in the use of ESP systems for deepwater pressure boost applications.”
With 50 years of submersible pumping experience and tens of thousands of installations worldwide, Centrilift can leverage its industry leading ESP technology to design and manufacture boost system options for a full range of subsea developments. ESP systems can be installed in the riser, at the mud line or down-hole, depending on the needs of the development.
Baker Hughes is a leading provider of drilling, formation evaluation, completion and production products and services to the worldwide oil and gas industry.

Baker Hughes is also one of the four main subsea system providers to be investing in state of art subsea research facilities in Brazil, along with other notable companies such as FMC, SLB and Halliburton. Thus helping the country develop its own technological laboratories, specialized high end research workforce and of course raising the standards of subsea research in the country, which is a fundamental step for any underdeveloped country to join the league of technologically developed nations.

This is something that along with the development of Brazil´s potential in O&G production, will take decades and the importance of which is systematically downplayed by many a developed nation who greedily seek the riches and neglect the importance of knowledge, which is their undoing and usually bring about a costly end to the growth of these underdeveloped nations.

The contribution these specific companies are having to the ultimate growth and technological development of Brazil should not be forgotten by the Brazilian people and by the Brazilian O&G players such as Petrobras and recently OGX.

Although Petrobras has also actively been investing in high end technology for decades, mainly through it CENPES laboratory in partnership with the COPPE division of UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), the influence these companies have had in Brazil´s technological growth in all areas of O&G research and development and specifically in subsea technology cannot be dismissed.

 

Claudio Paschoa

Photo courtesy of Baker Hughes