The Importance of Brazilian Deepwater Activities to the Oil Industry Technological Development
Authors: Estrella G. 
Published: October 2008

Since 1977, Petrobras has had to innovate in order to increase the Brazilian oil output. The challenges of deepwaters (400 m &lt;Water Depth&lt; 1,000 m) and ultra-deepwaters (Water Depth &gt; 1,000 m) in Brazil had to be faced once their overcoming were the only alternative to reach the desired production levels as well as to attend the required fields development pace.

At the time that such problem was identified, the useof conventional technology would demand both a long leadtime to the first barrel and the resources were not compatible with the urge of cutting down the oil import, and to the delicate country foreign cash flow balance. Therefore, the best way to workaround the problem was by using both international and local innovative technology in its own production facilities as a real-scale R&D lab. To achieve the necessary technological level, a long path has been tracked and several contributions to the oil industry were made.

This paper gives a glance on the brazillian offshore activities, describing the importance of brazillian exploration and production to the oil industry. It also highlights the main technological developments performed by Petrobras to produce in deep and ultra-deep waters, safely and profitably. The technology trends, as well as the future challenges to support the activities are also discussed.

Introduction

The severe economical impact of the 1973 world oil crisis triggered a huge worldwide increase in the investments on oil and gas exploration and production activities, including the search for new technology to produce fields located in hostile environment.

For Brazil, a country facing an unfavorable balance of payments resulting mostly from its large oil imports, the initial discoveries in Campos Basin, starting in 1974, came as a relief. But they also posed the challenge of bringing the newly discovered prolific oil province on to production, as fast and at the lowest cost as possible.

Basically, the problem consisted of producing in conditions never experienced before, since the Garoupa and Enchova Fields, the first discoveries, were located in 120m water depth, considered as deep waters, at the time.

Using fixed platforms, the available field proven solution, was both technically and economically feasible, but its implementation would take years, and the costs were relatively high. The country also had to limit the use of foreign services and goods to a bearable minimum, to not worsen the economical scenario. In order to overcome these problems, Petrobras decided to try, in parallel with the development of these two fields, new ideas and concepts, thus using Campos Basin as a real scale lab.

Starting in 1984, new discoveries located in even deeper water, ranging from 300 to over 2,600 m, have displayed Campos Basin full potential, that is, the existence of giant deepwater fields. These discoveries include the following fields: Albacora (in 1984), Marlim (1985), Albacora Leste (1986), Marlim Sul (1987), Marlim Leste (1987), Barracuda (1989), Caratinga (1989), Espadarte (1994), Roncador (1996), Jubarte (2002) and Cachalote (2002).