France’s Total and its partners have announced the start-up of the second floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit, P-70, at pre-salt Iara cluster (Block BM-S-11A) in the deepwater Santos Basin offshore Brazil. With a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, this new unit will double the overall production capacity of the Iara cluster and will produce oil and gas from the Atapu field. Production from the Iara cluster started in November 2019 in the Berbigão field with the FPSO P-68.
The Iara license covers Sururu, Berbigão and Atapu fields. In January 2018 Total acquired 22.5% of the rights in Block BM-S-11A from Brazil’s Petrobras. Petrobras (42.5%), Shell Brasil Petróleo (25%) and Petrogal Brasil (10%) are other partners in the Iara cluster.
“The ramp-up of Iara’s production reflects Total’s growth strategy in the Brazilian deep offshore, where the group focuses on giant projects that produce barrels of oil at competitive cost, resilient in the face of oil price volatility,” said Arnaud Breuillac, Total’s president of exploration and production.
Total’s portfolio in Brazil currently includes 24 blocks, of which it operates 10.
