The double-hulled FPSO's design required significant power and heat delivery systems to drive the seabed lift equipment and process the heavy crudes. This development is the first of its kind based on full subsea oil and gas separation and subsea pumping. This system uses 1500-horsepower underwater pumps-each equivalent to a Formula One engine-to drive oil and a small quantity of gas to the surface. Phased development The first phase of the Parque das Conchas project included the development of three fields (Abalone, Ostra and Argonauta B-West) connected to the FPSO via subsea wells and manifolds (Figure 1). The development wells were drilled by Global Santa Fe's Arctic 1 drilling rig, and the fields came on stream in July 2009. This first phase involved nine producing wells and one gas injector well. By July 2013 the project had produced more than 70 million BOE. Phase two of the project, to tie-in the Argonauta O-North field, came on stream in October 2013. In phase two an additional 11 wells were drilled (including water injection), as well as adding subsea boosting equipment and brownfield topsides upgrades on the FPSO. The estimated peak production is 35,000 BOE/d. A Permanent Reservoir Monitoring (PRM) system was installed during this phase of the project, and it is this field and PRM which are the primary focus of the present work. Phase three came on stream in March 2016. It comprises five producing wells in two fields (Massa and O-South), and two water injection wells in Massa. The fields are tied back to the FPSO. Daily production of the phase three wells is expected to total up to 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at peak annual production. The success of this phased development is attributed to rigorous standardization, rapidly applied learnings, and strategic deployment of new technologies (LeBlanc et al., 2015).

No abstract

No abstract