Iran Reports Arrival Of First FPSO In Persian Gulf

A $300 million FPSO unit, the first in the Persian Gulf, will be deployed in first-phase development of the South Pars oil layer, an executive with Petroiran Development Co. has confirmed.

“The ship arrived in Iran’s territorial sea in the early hours of Feb. 10 to mark the first FPSO unit of the Middle East,” said Petroiran CEO Roham Ghasemi. He recently told the Shana news agency that the vessel was built in Singapore.

The deal to purchase the FPSO was announced in October 2016 by Ali Kardor, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC). The vessel will be deployed in the South Pars oil layer, a joint field operated with Qatar, with the goal of bringing production to 35 Mbbl/d by late March, the end of the Iranian calendar year.

Gholamreza Manouchehri, NIOC’s deputy head for development and engineering affairs, has commenced talks with Denmark’s Maersk Group over development of the second phase of South Pars.

The Iranian section of the field contains an estimated 14 Tcm (494 Tcf) of gas and 18 Bbbl of condensates in place.

P-66 Vessel Makes Its Way To Lula Field Offshore Brazil

The P-66 FPSO vessel, the first such unit to be deployed by the Lula Consortium in the Santos Basin presalt area, left the Brasfels shipyard in Rio de Janeiro destined for the Lula Field offshore Brazil, Petrobras said Feb. 4.

The floater, built by Keppel Offshore & Marine’s Brasfels, is capable of processing 150,000 bbl/d of oil and 6 MMcm/d (211.8 MMcf/d) of gas as well as storing 1.67 MMbbl of oil. Petrobras said the vessel will come online after it has been moored and the first production well has been connected. The vessel will eventually be connected to 10 production wells and eight injector wells.

Located in the BM-S-11 concession area, the Lula Field is operated by Petrobras (65%) in partnership with Shell subsidiary BG E&P Brasil (25%) and Petrogal Brasil (10%).

—Staff Reports