Brazil’s Petrobras has started output at the Itapu pre-salt field in the Santos basin via the P-71 floating production, storage and offloading vessel.

The P-71 FPSO, which features a processing capacity of 150,000 barrels per day of oil and 6 million cubic metres per day of natural gas, was deployed in water depths of 2010 metres.

“We were able to anticipate production of the P-71 platform, which was originally scheduled for 2023,” said Petrobras production development director Joao Henrique Rittershaussen.

“We will also be able to anticipate the ramp-up, which is excellent news not only for Petrobras but also for the country, which will receive royalties from this production earlier.”

The P-71 is the last of six replica FPSOs ordered by Petrobras more than a decade ago to produce from its pre-salt assets.

The other were the P-66, P-67 and P-69 FPSOs producing in the Tupi field, the P-68 FPSO on stream in the Berbigao-Sururu field and the P-70 FPSO in operation at the Atapu field.

Stay a step ahead with the Upstream News app
Read high quality news and insight on the oil and gas business and its energy transition on-the-go. The News app offers you more control over your Upstream reading experience than any other platform.