Rio de Janeiro, July 13, 2009 – Shell today started production at its multi-field Parque das Conchas project 110 kilometres off Brazil’s south-east coast, where heavy oil resources lie beneath waters nearly two kilometres deep in the Campos Basin.
“This marks a major milestone in delivering oil from Brazil’s deep water and demonstrates Shell’s capability of delivering projects on time and on budget in a complex environment” said Marvin Odum, Shell Upstream Americas Director. “We are proud of the many technologies this project advanced, the jobs it created and the investment it spurred,” he added. “It’s a testament to strong relationships and shared values — a true partnership between the people and government of Brazil and Shell.” Parque das Conchas is a two-phase project with initial production drawn from three fields: Abalone, Ostra and Argonauta B-West. The first phase, now on-stream, involves nine producing wells and one gas injector well. The second phase will focus on the Argonauta O-North field. Shell executed a host of new and advanced technologies to meet the project’s many challenges, among them water depth and oil viscosity: Electric pumps of 1,500 horsepower drive the oil 1,800 metres up to the surface for processing in a floating, production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), Espírito Santo, which is more than 330 metres long. It can process 100 thousand barrels of oil and 50 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and store nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil for shipment to shore by transport tankers Technology highlights:
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2. Project Timeline |