Wärtsilä Hamworthy has secured a contract to supply its flare gas recovery packages to four floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units being built for Petrobras.
Each of the FPSO units will be able to handle 150,000 oil barrels per day (bpd) and after delivery will operate in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin, off the coast of south east São Paulo, Brazil.
After installation of the packages, three of the FPSOs will be deployed in Block BM-S-11 Lula (Tupi), while one will be deployed in the Block BM-S-9 Guara.
Hamworthy Oil & Gas Systems project manager of gas recovery business unit Hamilton Santos said that flaring gas has a global impact on climate change by adding about 400 million tonnes of CO2 in annual emissions.
"Petrobras is committed to minimising flaring in its operations and has therefore planned for flare gas recovery systems to be installed on all units for the pre-salt development," Santos said.
The recent deal follows a contract signed late last year by the company for systems to be installed on the P58 and P62 FPSO conversions in the Baleia Azul and Roncador fields offshore Brazil, both owned and operated by Petrobras.
The first FPSO is expected to be operational by the end of 2014, with the next three by 2015.
"Petrobras made its biggest oil field discovery to date in the pre-salt development and the Tupi block alone will increase Brazil’s reserves by around 50%."
Earlier this month, Petrobras signed a $1.7bn deal with a consortium of Brazilian industrial construction companies Odebrecht, OAS and UTC Engenharia for the hull conversion of a very large crude carrier (VLCC) into FPSO.
The vessel conversion work will be carried out in the Inhaúma shipyard in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The shipyard has already been leased by Petrobras and is being remodelled to meet the company’s demands.
