Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) announced that the offshore platform Cidade de Ilhabela started up on Thursday in the Santos Basin presalt field of Sapinhoá, according to a company press release. The new unit is part of the set of production projects scheduled for this year as outlined in the company’s 2014 to 2018 business and management plan.

The platform Cidade de Ilhabela is an FPSO vessel. Petrobras hired the consortium QGOG/SBM on March 30, 2012, to build the FPSO. The hull was converted from a tanker at the CXG shipyard in China, while the integration of the process plant modules took place at the Brasa Shipyard, in Niterói, RJ.

The offshore platform was set up at a site where the water depth reaches 2,140 m (7,021 ft), some 310 km (193 miles) off the coast of São Paulo state. It will be able to produce up to 150 Mbbl/d of oil, compress up to 6 MM m³/d of natural gas and store 1.6 MMbbl of oil. Moreover, the platform will be able to inject 180 Mbbl/d of water. Well 3-SPS-69, the first to go into operation, has a production potential of 32 Mbbl/d. The oil produced in Sapinhoá Field is of excellent quality—29° API on average—and is to be offloaded by tankers, according to the release.

The unused portion of the gas for reinjection into the field will flow through the Sapinhoá-Lula-Mexilhão gas pipeline to the Monteiro Lobato Gas Treatment Unit located in Caraguatatuba, on the coast of São Paulo state. FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela will be connected to nine production wells and seven injection ones. Peak of production is expected to occur in second-half 2015, the release said.

The estimated local content for Sapinhoá Field development is above 55%, higher than the 30% minimum local content stipulated by Brazil’s National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency. Thirteen of the FPSO’s 18 process plant modules were built in Brazil: three at EBSE-Nuclep, in Itaguaí, RJ, and 10 at the Brasa Shipyard, in Niterói, RJ.

Sapinhoá Field production started in January 2013 by interconnecting well 1-SPS-55 to FPSO Cidade de São Paulo (Sapinhoá Pilot), with a production capacity of up to 120 Mbbl/d, the release said.

Sapinhoá Field is operated by Petrobras (45%), in partnership with BG E&P Brasil Ltda (30%) and Repsol Sinopec S.A. (25%).