Mexilhão to go into operation in 2010, foresees Petrobras
Valor Econômico
The gas field of Mexilhão, in Santos Basin (SP), should go into operation in May of next year with a delay of almost two years compared to the initial schedule. The directive plan of the field, approved by the Agência Nacional de Petróleo ((National Oil Agency) ANP) in October 2006, had foreseen the commencement of the production in 2008, achieving its peak in 2009. Now, according to the ANP, Petrobras, the field concessionaire, will present in January 2010 one review of the directive plan, foreseeing the beginning of the production for May of the same year.
When it achieves the peak, Mexilhão will produce 15 million cubic meters of natural gas a day, half of the importing limit of the Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline. When it was discovered, in April 2001, the field was even compared to Bolivia, in reference to its giant field characteristics, with reserves estimated at 420 billion cubic meters. The reserves are currently estimated at 72 billion cubic meters, still, the largest field of natural gas of Brazil.
The platform, contracted for R$ 1.2 billion (US$ 631.6 million), is being constructed by the shipyard Estaleiro Mauá (Synergy group). The platform will be connected to the gas processing unit that is being built in Caraguatatuba (SP) by a 170-kilometer pipeline, of which only eight kilometers will be in land. Alencar said the 34-inch piping has already been launched into the sea and that it now has to be buried and commissioned (preparation for operation).
The Caraguatatuba processing unit will have capacity for 18 million cubic meters of gas a day throughout 2010 and its construction is contracted for R$ 1.4 billion (US$ 736.8 million). Alencar said there is already a project to increase its processing capacity to 27 million cubic meters of natural gas a day. The system is completed by a 94-kilometer gas pipeline connecting Caraguatatuba to Taubaté whose works, according to Alencar, are also underway. Besides processing the gas from Mexilhão, the platform of the field will also receive the production of gas from to the oil produced in the Uruguá-Tambaú field and from the pilot project of the Tupi field. Together, they will reach the production of 13 million cubic meters of gas a day.