Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - macaé

The seabed oil spill that is still ongoing next to the Frade oil field in the Campos Basin is again raising the local awareness to the inherent dangers associated with O&G exploration. As many politicians and environmentalists hit the panic button, this kind of spill is, if not expected, is a definite possibility. There is simply no failsafe way to drill for oil and when the actual drilling is done underwater the risks compounded and the time it takes to resolve the issue is also increased. As this particular spill is a deep water event 1,200 meters deep it may not be so easy to stop and Chevron, the well operator has already taken steps to shut down the well permanently, this may also point to a loss of well control and a possible blowout.

Petrobras has decided on a novel way to transfer pre-salt oil to export and local market tankers from a maritime operations base. The projects named “Unidade Offshore de Transferência e Exportação”  (UOTE) or Offshore Transfer and Export Unit (OTEU), will work as a floating port terminal. Due to the distance from land of pre-salt plays such as Tupi, which is nearly 300km from the nearest coast. The national operator chose to use an DP enabled FSO anchored in shallow waters, 80 to 90km from the coast Rio, in around 70 meters of water to receive and store production oil from shuttle tankers loaded at the production FPSOs, over the pre-salt plays. The FSO will have a capacity to store 2 million barrels of oil and will be connected to underwater pipelines.

The O&G service provider is giving priority to investments in Brazil as part of its worldwide investment strategy. Studying the Deepwater Pre-salt Carbonate Systems in Brazil is one of their main priorities. With the expected growth of Brazil´s current O&G production from 2 million boe to 5 billion boe by 2015, industry service providers are feeling the necessity of making local investments proportionate to this expected growth. Schlumberger, as a leading service provider in the O&G industry has been quietly expanding its operations in Brazil through investments in local infrastructure and in aggressively pursuing highly qualified technicians and engineers.